(PORTLAND, Ore.) – The Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) and our more than 16,000 represented health care workers statewide, stand with the nurses and other frontline health care workers at Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital in Portland following this weekend’s fatal shooting. There are no words to express our heartbreak. Our deepest condolences are with the family of the hospital security guard who was killed in this senseless act of violence.  

Tragically, violence against nurses and health care workers is all too common.  

Studies show that, on average, 57 nurses are assaulted in this country each day and the number and severity of the violence directed at health care workers has increased at a truly alarming rate. A study in the September 2022 issue of Workplace & Health Safety showed that a significant number of hospital nurses reported facing increased physical violence and verbal abuse from patients, loved ones and visitors compared with pre-pandemic levels.  

It is the responsibility of every health care system and hospital administration in Oregon to do everything in their power to protect the safety of their patients and frontline caregivers.  

For example, ONA has heard complaints from our members at various facilities across the state about hospital management being painfully slow to respond to nurses’ concerns. Specifically, our members note management’s failure to install metal detectors after years of pressure from nurses and other health care workers to do so. Additionally, nurses often report that, once installed, metal detectors are not appropriately staffed and that security personnel are being overwhelmed by their duties due to chronic understaffing.  

Taking workplace safety seriously looks like more than just installing a metal detector and leaving it unstaffed. It includes but is not limited to: 

• Engaging nurses and frontline health care workers in the development, implementation, and enforcement of meaningful workplace violence prevention policies.
• Screening all patients and visitors and ensuring belongings are sent through a metal detector that is staffed at all times.
• Ensuring the entire facility has sufficient security staff to provide security coverage in all units across the hospital and that security staff has sufficient de-escalation training.
• Taking verbal threats of violence seriously, including creation of no-tolerance policies that cover verbal threats and result in individuals who engage in any workplace violence being removed and banned.
• Developing unit-specific assessments and policies, considering that different types of violence are likely to occur in different care settings. Those assessments and policies should be unique and reflective of the specific units they address.
• Increased reporting and transparency, both internally and externally, so that all workers at a hospital are informed of the incidence of workplace violence and so that community members, law enforcement and public sector agencies are aware of trends in a specific hospital.
• De-escalation training, trauma-informed care and crisis intervention training, safe gun handling training, personal self-defense classes, and any other continuing educational offerings that can support health care staff in helping ensure their own safety on the job.

Finally, health care workers who experience workplace violence must be supported by their hospitals through the provision of paid release time off, access to mental health support, and a change of assignment if needed.

ONA is renewing our call for hospitals and health systems across the state to redouble their efforts at protecting nurses and their frontline health worker colleagues. With the instances of workplace violence growing, and research indicating that trend is likely to continue, now is the time for hospitals to finally take nurses' and health care workers’ safety concerns seriously. 

The Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) is the state’s largest and most influential nursing organization. We are a professional association and labor union which represents more than 16,000 nurses and allied health workers throughout the state. ONA’s mission is to advocate for nursing, quality health care and healthy communities. For more information visit: www.OregonRN.org.

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