Healthcare workers are consistently abused (physically and verbally) while taking care of patients. This has caused retention issues amongst staff, especially for nurses. There is already a massive shortage of nurses nationwide. The abuse most times is not taken seriously and the perpetrators are almost never held accountable for their actions. I’ve had many international nurses tell me that this isn’t an issue in their countries. Their countries won’t tolerate abuse. However, in our country, hospitals are unfortunately more worried about losing money than the safety of their own staff. And when a healthcare worker does attempt to press charges, most of the time nothing is done about it. This needs to change. When a cop is punched, the person gets arrested and charged with assault, but when a nurse gets punched, there are little to no repercussions. This only further enables patients to be more abusive and take advantage of healthcare workers. This has also led to many healthcare workers suffering from PTSD and being afraid to even do their jobs.
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