Workplace violence against nurses is a patient safety crisis, not “part of the job”

Workplace violence in healthcare settings has become widely normalized, which obscures its severity and undermines meaningful attempts at prevention. Thousands of healthcare workers a year experience workplace violence-related injuries, and many incidences go unreported altogether. As a result, the true risk and frequency of workplace violence are concealed and unaddressed, leading to inadequate allocation of resources toward prevention. The consequences of workplace violence extend beyond physical injury; lasting psychological harm such as post-traumatic stress symptoms and moral distress is common. State-level responses, including expanded criminal penalties and mandated employer-run prevention programs, have emerged in the absence of enforceable federal standards. Despite being framed as an unavoidable consequence of working in healthcare, workplace violence should be seen instead as an outcome of chronic mistreatment of healthcare workers, poor security infrastructure, and weak regulatory oversight. In hostile and dangerous work environments, patient safety and healthcare quality inevitably suffer. Workplace violence is therefore an urgent patient safety issue, and addressing it is integral to providing quality healthcare.