Strategic priority — occupational and environmental health
Our focus is on promoting healthy and safe environments for nurses and environmental justice for all the communities nurses serve.
Achievements
- Won passage of the Workplace Violence Prevention bill and educated nurses on violence-prevention strategies.
- Developed an interactive stress management video and resource list to provide self-care support to nurses during the pandemic.
Unanimous legislative win strengthens workplace violence statute
In September and October 2018, nurses were punched, choked, kicked, scratched and threatened with death. Nurses involved in two serious incidents at Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richmond and an incident at St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma shared their stories in the Winter 2019 issue of The Washington Nurse, and WSNA brought nurses and lawmakers together in small group meetings to advocate for improvements to workplace violence prevention laws.
Spurred by the shocking stories and photos of workplace violence in health care settings, legislators in both houses of the State Legislature unanimously passed the Workplace Violence Prevention Act. On May 21, 2019, Governor Inslee signed the bill into law.
The Workplace Violence Prevention Act updated our state’s Workplace Violence in Health Care statute to provide more specificity around what hospitals must include in their required workplace violence prevention plans.
In the fall and winter of 2019-2020, WSNA held a series of workshops throughout the state to educate nurses on the updated statute and how to keep themselves safe.
While the COVID-19 crisis pulled most of WSNA’s safety focus to addressing issues like PPE shortages and hospital practices that weren’t safe for nurses or patients, we know that the problem of workplace violence has not gone away and will require our renewed attention