San Mateo, CA — Nearly 2 out of 5 health care workers have considered quitting because of safety concerns, including half of all nurses, according to a new report from Verkada.
For the security firm’s Health Care Worker Safety Report, the Harris Poll surveyed more than 1,000 full- and part-time health care workers in the United States who frequently interact with patients and/or their families.
Almost half (45%) of the respondents who said they’ve considered leaving their job were likely to do so in the next 12 months. Overall, 59% of the workers fear for their safety on the job, and most are concerned about verbal harassment and aggressive behavior/threats from patients (81% and 77%, respectively) and nonpatients (62% and 59%).
Citing data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the report states that health care workers are nearly four times more likely to suffer a serious injury from workplace violence than workers in any other job settings.
Female respondents were more likely than their male counterparts to experience or witness verbal harassment (88% vs. 81%), aggressive behavior (81% vs. 74%) and physical assault (48% vs. 34%) from patients.
Other findings:
- Nurses were about twice as likely than physicians (60% vs. 29%) to experience or witness a physical assault at work.
- ER workers were more likely than others to experience or witness physical assault (80% of ER workers vs. 61% of non-ER workers) and aggressive behavior/threats (93% vs. 84%) from patients.
- Both the nurses and physicians said they’re more concerned about their physical safety at work today than they were when they started working in health care, before the COVID-19 pandemic and one year ago.
