2SHB 1162 – 2025 Update to Workplace Violence Prevention in Health Care

In 2025, Washington State Nurses Association collaborated with key stakeholders to improve upon the workplace violence prevention bill passed by the legislature in 2019. The changes build on earlier requirements for prevention plans, training, and annual incident review. The new law strengthens accountability by requiring prompt investigation of every workplace violence incident, analysis of systemic causes and staffing factors contributing to workplace violence, regular summary reports to the safety or workplace violence prevention committee, and use of facility-specific incident data to update workplace violence prevention plans at least annually.

Workplace violence incident investigation and communication

• Requires timely investigation of workplace violence incidents.
• Includes assessment of contributing factors such as location, time, type of  violence, response to the incident, and staffing levels at the time of the incident compared to planned staffing levels.
• Reports must include a summary and analysis of any systemic and common causes of workplace violence incidents.
• Facilities must provide quarterly reports to the workplace violence prevention committee or the safety committee that include incident summaries, analysis of systemic and common causes, and recommendations for modifying the workplace prevention plan. Critical access hospitals may report semiannually.

Workplace violence prevention plan

• Requires the use of facility-specific workplace violence incident data to update the workplace violence prevention plan.
• The workplace violence prevention committee or the safety committee must review and update the workplace violence prevention plan at least annually.
• The review must consider incident reports, investigation findings, and identified systemic or common causes of workplace violence to evaluate trends and to identify prevention strategies.
• Quarterly incident reports and investigation findings inform the annual review and improvements to the workplace violence prevention plan.