Policy.docx - Running head POLICY POLITICS GLOBAL TRENDS Policy Politics Global Trends Lesley A Burns Western Governors University 1 POLICY POLITICS

Running head: POLICY, POLITICS & GLOBAL TRENDS 1 Policy, Politics, & Global Trends Lesley A. Burns Western Governors University

POLICY, POLITICS & GLOBAL TRENDS 2 Policy, Politics, & Global Trends According to the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), healthcare workers account for 20% of all workplace injuries, yet account for about 50% of all victims of workplace violence [Gea]. Nurses face a risk of violence at their work that is not typically seen by employees in the private sector. Paramedics, firefighters and police officers face risk every day, and now the nurses providing frontline care are at equal risk for violence. Nearly every state provides enhanced protection from assault to the paramedics, firefighters and police officers through enhanced charges and penalties in their criminal code [Gea]. The public policy that needs to be changed is that nurses deserve to be afforded the same protections as the paramedics, firefighters and police officers by providing enhanced charges or penalties for assaulting an emergency nurse. Issue Selection In order to decrease burnout and turnover of healthcare workers, especially nurses in the emergency department, changes must be made to support the healthcare worker against violence in their workplace. While legislation to strengthens criminal penalties for assaulting or battering emergency nurses or other healthcare workers in the emergency department that make it a felony to assault emergency nurses or other healthcare workers in the emergency department, educational training and policies and needs to be created and standardized across the state in the healthcare facilities Issue Relevance Healthcare facilities are a microcosm of society, where like the general population, patients, family members, and visitors can have financial difficulties, violent histories, and poor

POLICY, POLITICS & GLOBAL TRENDS 3 coping skills, as well as struggles with behavioral health and substance use disorders. Add in pain, fear and interventions involving physical contact and these factors can create the perfect storm for violence against nurses and other healthcare workers. [Tro18] With the emergency department being the front door to the hospital anyone can walk in at any time. The dynamic of the emergency department, long wait times, understaffing, overcrowding all are factors that create an environment for violence. While there are assaults that make the headlines, every day nurses routinely face verbal and physical assaults such as spitting, punching, kicking and verbal assaults as they try to provide quality care to their patients. Hospital leadership and nursing organizations such as Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) encourage nurses to report, ban together with zero tolerance and to file charges, yet nurses continue to take the violence as a part of the job.