New Jersey hospital workers have experienced a 15% increase in violence at their workplace — mostly physical and verbal attacks — over the last two years, as short staffing has generated frustrated and angry patients who lash out at nurses and their colleagues.
The number of attacks reached 9,962 last year, up from 8,691 in 2019, according to a survey published last week by the New Jersey Hospital Association, a trade group based in Princeton. Half the attacks in 2021 were physical, and 44% were verbal. Areas that experienced the most attacks were emergency departments and inpatient behavioral health units.
“The terrible irony is that those who dedicate their lives to healing others are the targets of increasing violence and aggression,” hospital association president and CEO Cathy Bennett said in a news release. “We can only speculate on why these incidents are rising and the degree to which the tensions of the pandemic and our polarized society are part of it.”
