National Nurses United

NewsBriefs.REV_April 5/8/10 2:32 PM Page 8 NEWS BRIEFS health risks. Ellen MacInnis, a nurse at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Brighton, once was trying to put an IV into an HIVinfected patient when the patient took a swing at her, she said, dislodging the IV and spraying blood in her face, mouth and eyes. "The hospital is the one place where, when you show up there, we have to take you in," MacInnis said at the press conference. "The behavior that we see, in any other place ... people would be thrown out." Massachusetts Nurses The event drew Association members extensive media lobbied hard for coverage through the a bill increasing state. The next day's penalties for those Boston Herald who assault nurses. opened its story with the following characterization of the MNA's victory: "They care. They converged. They conquered." Massachusetts law already treats any assault on an emergency medical technician while the technician is providing care as a separate crime with its own set of penalties. The bill the legislature passed extends those same protections to nurses. MNA is working to resolve slight differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill, and hopes to get it to the governor's desk within the next few months. Throughout the lobby day, nurses dressed in their scrubs and lab coats made visits to their legislators to seek their support for the assault bill and two other measures: S.B. 988, which will require healthcare employers to develop and implement programs to prevent workplace violence, and H.B. 1931, which will create a special "difficult to manage" unit in the Department of Mental Health to treat repeat perpetrators of violence. The other two measures are currently making their way through the legislative process. MNA Vice President Karen Coughlin, RN, said she has been a victim of a number of assaults during her years working at one of the state's mental health facilities. "Patients, family members and others must get the message that violence against healthcare workers will be treated seriously," Coughlin said. —David Schildmeier Massachusetts Passes Bill Punishing Perpetrators of Workplace Violence MASSACHUSETTS assachusetts legislators have passed a bill that will stiffen penalties for those who assault nurses and other healthcare workers, one of a series of measures the Massachusetts Nurses Association is proposing to address the growing problem of workplace violence in healthcare settings. "Violence against nurses is occurring at an alarming rate. This is an important first step in our effort to make healthcare settings safer for nurses and for patients," said Donna Kelly-Williams, RN, president of the MNA. The bill passed the Senate this month after clearing the House March 31—the same day more than 250 nurses from across the Commonwealth, many victims of workplace violence, converged at the State House for a press conference and lobby day, where they pushed for passage of a package of safety-related bills sponsored by the MNA. MNA members shared with legislators their stories of being assaulted, putting a human face on the problem. M 8 N AT I O N A L N U R S E At a press conference before the House vote, Donna L. Stern, a registered nurse in a mental health unit at Baystate Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield, told a packed hearing room how she has been punched, kicked, almost strangled and spit on during her five years as a nurse. Emergency department nurse Linda Condon described an encounter with an out-of-control patient: "I was head butted in the face by a patient who I was attempting to hold back as she attempted to kick another colleague who she had thrown to the ground." A 2008 study showed that workers in the healthcare sector are 16 times more likely to be confronted with violence on the job than any other service profession. The problem is rampant in Massachusetts: A 2004 survey of nurses in the state found that half had been punched at least once in the previous two years, and a quarter were regularly pinched, scratched, spit on or had their hand twisted. Besides the trauma of the assault, nurses who are attacked sometimes face additional W W W. N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G APRIL 2010

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