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California nurses seek protection from hospital violence

Hospital Safety Insider, February 12, 2015

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Nurses turned out in force February 5 in Los Angeles to hear officials discuss proposals for tough new rules aimed at preventing hospital violence, just two weeks after a nurse was shot at a local California hospital, according to a report from KNBC-TV.

California’s state OSHA officials are working to develop new rules, which some think could have prevented the shooting of a nurse at a mental health clinic in Southern Los Angeles as well as other attacks on healthcare workers, the report says.

Healthcare unions in California have been in heated discussions with the state OSHA to try to get employers, including major hospitals, to protect them with tighter security and stricter training requirements.

The nurse in the most recent incident was shot in the leg during a struggle with a patient at a community mental health hospital in Los Angeles. Some nurses told KNBC a metal detector might have prevented the man from bringing in a gun. Last spring, two other nurses were seriously injured during two stabbings that occurred within hours of each other. According to Cal/OSHA statistics quoted in the report, nearly 5,000 incidents of workplace violence in healthcare settings were reported in California between 2010 and 2012.

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