ED nurses encouraged to report violence

Emergency department (ED) nurses are often victims of violence, but fail to report it, according to a study conducted by the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA). The study found that 55.6% of nurses reported that they had experienced physical violence, verbal abuse, or both.

The ENA and American Organization of Nurse Executives recently held a daylong forum on workplace violence, where participants developed guiding principles on how to mitigate violence in the workplace, according to Hospitals & Health Networks. A major contributor to the problem is that healthcare workers underreport violence because it is inconvenient and such incidents are considered part of the job. The ENA’s study found that 65.6% of physical violence victims and 86.1% of verbal abuse victims did not file a formal report.

Read the Hospitals & Health Networks report.