Workplace violence affects health workers, study says

By ERIC FREEDMAN
Capital News Service
LANSING — Workers in hospitals and other health care facilities are at higher risk of becoming victims of workplace violence than employees in other jobs, a new federal study found. Kicking, hitting and beating are the most commonly reported forms of on-the-job violence that caused health care employees to miss days at work, according to the U.S. General Accountability Office (GAO), a nonpartisan investigative agency of Congress. The Michigan Nurses Association, which represents unionized hospital nurses, cited two such incidents. In one, a professional wrestler being treated at an Alpena emergency room twisted a nurse’s arm and damaged her shoulder. In the other, a nurse who was eight months pregnant was kicked in the stomach.