The Georgia Nurses Association and the Georgia Hospital Association held the first Workforce Violence Prevention Summit at the Georgia State Capitol on Feb. 12 to address the increase of violent jobsite incidents.
In May 2023, a gunman at Northside Hospital Midtown in Atlanta killed CDC employee Amy St. Pierre and injured four other women.
Violence against healthcare workers has been on the rise nationally since the pandemic, and has led some healthcare workers to consider leaving their hospital and health system roles, according to a February report from National Nurses United.
The Workforce Violence Prevention Summit focused on an overview of the Safer Hospitals Act, a bill currently in the Georgia House that would impose harsher penalties against anyone who assaults a healthcare worker on the job. It also featured discussions about the boundaries that may make a victim not speak up or report an incident, law enforcement responses and additional safety strategies.
"Violence is not acceptable, and healthcare workers should not have to worry about being attacked," Mary Chatman, PhD, RN, the Georgia Hospital Association board chair and executive vice president of acute care operations for Wellstar Health System, said in a news release. "Understanding the prevalence of violence and the circumstances surrounding these incidents is important. We owe it to our workforce to partner together to address these issues, and we are proud to be part of efforts to find solutions to this problem."