May 29, 2014

The Honorable John Tester

Silver Bow Center
125 W Granite, Suite 200
Butte, MT 59701
Phone: (406) 723-3277
Fax: (406) 782-4717

Dear Senator: John Tester

In 1999 Bureau of Labor Statistics estimate 2,637 nonfatal assaults on
hospital workers-a rate of 8.3 assaults per 10,000 workers (OSHA). Workplace
violence such as physical assaults, threatening or violent behavior is a
growing problem in the workplace. An important step would be to enacted
laws that enhance criminal charges and stiffen penalties for those who
assault nurses and other healthcare workers. There is a lack of legislation to
protect nurses from violence, HB 269 is simply a law designed to protect
healthcare workers from vicious assault in their workplace.
The risk factors for violence vary from hospital to hospital depending
on location, size, and type of care, my facility St James Healthcare in Butte
provides care for the poor and vulnerable people of the community
regardless if they can pay, and our emergency department is vulnerable to
violence frequently. The physical violence seems to be increasing and in the
face of diminishing recourses, its difficult to treat the increasing violent
patients. This violence can take the form of intimidation, harassment,
spitting, stalking, beatings, stabbings, shootings, and other forms of assault.
Nurses are among the most assaulted workers in the American workforce
(HRSA, 2005).
Working directly with volatile people, especially, if they are under the
influence of drugs or alcohol or have a history of violence or certain
psychotic diagnoses, transporting potentially volatile patients, inadequate
security, drug and alcohol abuse, or access to firearms can place the
healthcare workers at risk for a vicious assault in their workplace. Further
funding for educational programs for prevention, resources for research
would help determine effective prevention, intervention, and management
strategies.
A violence reporting program in the Portland, Oregon, VA Medical
Center identified patients with a history of violence in a computerized
database. The program helped reduce the number of all violent attacks by
91.6% by alerting staff to take additional safety measures when serving

these patients. A grant to provide this program to Montana hospitals would

be extremely beneficial as well (nurse together).
All these and more would protect and prepare healthcare workers from
violent patients Legislators and healthcare worker groups are now proposing
to step up prosecution of offenses against healthcare providers at medical
facilities; the government must crack down on perpetrators of violence in
hospitals, healthcare worker groups, I am asking for zero tolerance for
violence, when a nurse is injured by a patient, the nurse should have legal
recourse under criminal and civil law. The nurse has the right to press
criminal charges when threatened or intentionally harmed by a patient.

Sincerely,
Christina Vidrich
RN, BSN, CNOR
30 Softwood Road
Butte, MT. 59071
406-490-0064

Reference:
The National Advisory Council on Nurse Education and Practice (2005, April
1). An Assessment of the Causes and Impacts of Violence in Nursing
Education and Practice. Retrieved May 15, 2014, from
http://www.hrsa.gov/advisorycommittees/bhpradvisory/nacnep/reports/fifthreport.pd
f.
Hospital eTool: Healthcare Wide Hazards - Workplace Violence. (n.d.). Hospital eTool:
Healthcare Wide Hazards - Workplace Violence. Retrieved May 29, 2014, from
https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/hospital/hazards/workplaceviolence/viol.html
"When Patients Assault Nurses." NurseTogether.com. NurseTogether.com, 16 July
2013. Web. 29 May 2014. <http://www.nursetogether.com/nurses-as-assault-victimwhen-you-are-inju>.
Mason, D.J., Leavitt, J.K., & Chaffee, M.W. (2014). Policy & politics in nursing and
health care. St. Louis: Elsevier/Saunders.
Cowen, P.S. & Moorhead, S. (Eds.). (2011). Current issues in nursing (8th ed.). St.
Louis: Mosby Elsevier.