Health care workers seek tougher penalties for assaults against them
Nurses and hospital employees implored lawmakers to strengthen the penalties on attacks against them, arguing in charged testimony Tuesday that current enforcement creates unsafe workplaces.
Current state law categorizes assault or assault and battery on medical personnel as a misdemeanor, but workers urged the Joint Committee on the Judiciary to support bills filed by Rep. Paul Tucker and Sen. Michael Brady that would upgrade those incidents to felonies, as is the case in 33 other states.
Doing so, they said, will help ensure employees in already-stressful environments are sufficiently protected from harm. Nurses shared harrowing stories of being held at knifepoint or physically attacked by patients and patient families, and the concerns are disproportionate: according to Erin Johnson, a nurse at Providence Behavioral Health Hospital in Holyoke, almost 70 percent of non-fatal workplace assaults occur against health care workers.
"As a nurse who's been victim of and witness to violence in the workplace, I can tell you that these statistics are only part of the story," Johnson said. "Behind each assault or act of violence, the physical and psychological trauma inflicted upon us is often compounded when we are either told overtly or implicitly that violence is just part of our job."
Because state law treats these incidents as misdemeanors, advocates said, police can only arrest individuals if an officer directly witnesses the assault, forcing victims in most cases to continue working in close proximity to their assailants.
The bills would impose a penalty of up to five years in state prison for assault on a health care worker.
"We shouldn't expect anyone to be working under those conditions," said Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan. "(A felony charge) sends a different message and helps to create a different culture about what's acceptable."
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