Northeast Ohio nurses are cheering the passage of a new law that will help improve workplace safety for care providers in hospitals.
In one of the last bills to be passed in 2024, Gov. Mike DeWine signed H.B. 452 into law on Jan. 9. The law aims to prevent hospital violence by expanding training, improving incident reporting and strengthening security plans. It also provides civil immunity for people acting in self-defense or in defense of someone else.
The legislation was introduced after the death of a nurse in Dayton.
Sara Harkelroad, president of the Salem Registered Nurses Association, said health care staff frequently encounter violence on the job — from stressed patients, domestic partners and even other nurses.
"It's really sad, the amount of violence ... and how easy it is to come into contact with it in a hospital situation, because that is just a place where people have to go when they are not at their best," she said.
It's a growing problem, and more common than most people know, Harkelroad said. Health care workers accounted for 73% of nonfatal injuries and illnesses due to workplace violence in 2018, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
One aspect of the new law requires hospitals to include input from frontline staff in creating the safety plans.
"There needs to be more security presence within the hospitals," Harkelroad said. "I think not only do patients need to see that, but the nurses and the health care workers need to see that there are people out there who want to keep them safe and care about their well-being as well."
Harkelroad said she is glad the legislature recognized a need for all hospitals in Ohio to have strong security protocols.
“In small community hospitals, you feel like you're not in a high crime area, so 'Why would the people inside the hospital be at risk?' But it can happen anywhere, and it's going to surprise us," she said.