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Healthcare executives often speak about “stability, partnership,” and a “shared commitment to care.” In a recent statement criticizing nurses at Jefferson Einstein Hospital in Philadelphia for authorizing a strike, Jefferson Health warned that nurses’ actions could disrupt patient care and send the “wrong message” to the community. But the wrong message is not nurses demanding safer conditions. It’s expecting nurses to absorb violence, chronic understaffing and unsafe working conditions while employers avoid accountability for creating them.
When nurses organize, speak out, or consider striking, health systems often portray them as the threat to patient care. That narrative turns reality upside down. Nurses are not responsible for the conditions driving healthcare workers to the breaking point. Employers are. If health systems truly believe in a “shared commitment to care,” they should start by taking responsibility for the conditions that are making healthcare increasingly unsafe for both patients and staff
A recent National Nurses United report found that more than 8 in 10 nurses experienced workplace violence in the past year. Across the country, nurses are being punched, kicked, scratched, bitten, threatened and assaulted while providing care
Workplace violence has become so normalized in healthcare that many nurses are told to expect it as part of the job. We are expected to show up, provide compassionate care, de-escalate crises, and then move on after being assaulted as if nothing happened. In some cases, nurses are even blamed for the violence committed against them despite the fact that workplace violence is never the victim’s fault. No other profession would accept that standard
The conversation about workplace violence is often framed as a patient behavior problem. Certainly, some patients arrive in crisis, frightened, confused, or suffering from serious medical and mental health conditions. But workplace violence is also an employer accountability problem
Health care workers experience some of the highest rates of workplace violence of any profession, yet there is still no enforceable federal OSHA standard specifically requiring health care employers to implement workplace violence prevention programs. While OSHA provides guidance, guidance is not the same as accountability. Too often, violence occurs, an incident report is completed, and everyone moves on while the underlying hazards remain unchanged
That is why the Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act is so important. The legislation would require OSHA to establish an enforceable workplace violence prevention standard for healthcare and social service employers. Facilities would be required to assess risks, develop prevention plans, train staff, maintain incident logs, create reporting systems free from retaliation and investigate incidents to prevent future harm. Most importantly, the legislation recognizes what nurses have been saying for years: workplace violence is not random. It is often predictable and preventable.
Safe staffing is one of the most effective violence prevention tools available. When hospitals and healthcare facilities are understaffed, wait times increase, frustrations rise and nurses have less time to recognize escalating situations before they become dangerous. Staff shortages create an environment where patients feel neglected, nurses become overwhelmed and everyone is placed at greater risk
Yet when nurses raise concerns about staffing, health systems often point to financial pressures, labor shortages or operational challenges. What is rarely acknowledged is the cost paid by frontline workers. Nurses absorb the consequences of these decisions every day in many ways like increased workloads, higher burnout rates, moral distress and greater exposure to workplace violence
This is what makes statements like Jefferson Health’s so frustrating. Nurses are not authorizing strikes because they want to disrupt care. They are sounding the alarm about conditions that already threaten patient care every day. Demanding safe staffing, safer workplaces and meaningful protections is not abandoning patients. It’s advocating for them
Patient safety and worker safety are not competing priorities. They are inseparable. A healthcare system cannot claim to prioritize quality care while failing to protect the people responsible for delivering it. It cannot celebrate nurses as heroes one day and dismiss their concerns the next. And it cannot claim a commitment to care while refusing to create the conditions that make care safe
The real disruption to patient care is not nurses speaking out. It’s a healthcare system that continues to treat workplace violence as inevitable, understaffing as acceptable and accountability as optional. And nurses will not continue to carry the cost of that failure in silence
This is a contributed opinion column. Sara Emerle is a registered nurse and Lehigh Valley resident. The views expressed in this piece are those of its individual author, and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of this publication. Do you have a perspective to share? Learn more about how we handle guest opinion submissions at themorningcall.com/opinions
