Nursing-Home Assistants Subject to the Highest Rate of U.S. Workplace Violence

A new directive from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) addresses workplace violence, calling it “a recognized hazard in nursing and residential care facilities.” OSHA officials who inspect these facilities are instructed to “investigate for the potential or existence” of incidents of workplace violence during their regular investigations. This instruction also applies to worksites in other industries that have a high incidence of workplace violence.

No other industry, though, has as high a rate of workplace violence as the nursing-home industry. A 2009 study conducted by the University of South Florida found that “[n]ursing assistants working in long-term care facilities have the highest incidence of workplace violence of any American worker.” The study found that an astonishing 27% of all workplace violence in the U.S. took place in nursing homes.

The study contained other startling statistics: Certified nursing assistants are physically assaulted an average of nine times per month, while 70% of all nursing-home staff are assaulted at least once a month. Most assaults are by residents with dementia.

Assaults against workers in nursing and personal-care facilities were 2.5 times more frequent than assaults against workers in the health services industry overall, according to 2001 data from the U.S. Department of Labor. DOL statistics from 2010 showed that there were approximately 2,130 assaults against workers in nursing and residential care facilities.

Categories: Workplace Compliance
Tags: Workplace Violence