As a CNA who works ….

As a CNA who works in health care, I feel compelled to call your attention to the immoderate reports of abuse on health-care workers. Patient violence toward healthcare workers, commonly known as type-2 workplace violence, is more prevailing in the health-care setting. Nurses and physicians are more likely to be victims of violence in their workplace than any other employees in other work industries. This is insane as patients go to health-care facilities to get help for healing, wellness and safety, but health-care workers go to work only to get assaulted by those patients. The more shocking part is that 80% of this violence toward healthcare professionals goes unreported due to compassion for their patient’s reasoning behind their violent acts, or simply for the fact no good will come from reporting as the patient will either be escorted from the premises or the employee themselves will be told to grow up as its part of their job, or even afraid that their employer will retaliate against them. In Arkansas, it is a felony to assault a health-care worker who is providing health-care services in any health-care facility ranging from a doctor’s office, or hospital, to nursing homes.

When someone on the streets is assaulted in public, people speak up and something is done about it, but what about our health-care workers being assaulted? Why isn’t anyone speaking up for them to keep them safe? I urge you to speak up for our health-care workers to keep them safe! [ Editor’s Note: As someone with a son who works with autistic children who has shared stories about how those children can sometimes turn violent, I can assure you I sympathize with what you’re saying about the potential for violence against healthcare workers by the mentally ill, dimentia patients and drug abusers, just to name a few potential case, but I thank you for the often thankless work you do…]