Nurses at UC Davis Medical Center (UCDMC) will hold a rally on Tuesday, Dec. 3 to speak out about serious security concerns and demand that the University of California (UC) continue making improvements to comply with the Cal/OSHA Workplace Violence Prevention in Healthcare Standard, announced California Nurses Association (CNA).

April 1, 2018 was the deadline for California health care employers to have their workplace violence prevention plans in place. Earlier this year, more than 350 nurses throughout the UC Davis health system were surveyed to determine if UCDMC has effective workplace violence measures in place. Here are a few of the survey results:

• 68 percent of nurses have experienced workplace violence at least once and another 16 percent have witnessed workplace violence
• 81 percent of nurses reported that they either did NOT have a post-incident debrief, or they are unsure if any post-incident debriefs occurred, signaling that if one did occur it was not enough to include all staff members
• 82 percent of nurses do not feel prepared if an active shooter event were to occur
• 61 percent of nurses do not feel safe in their designated parking area

What: Rally on workplace violence prevention
When: Tuesday, Dec. 3 at 7:00pm
Where: UC Davis Medical Center, 2315 Stockton Boulevard, Sacramento

To interview a nurse, contact Bridget Lavington, 510-701-2079, George Brown, 916-813-2619, or Chuleenan Svetvilas, 510-273-2219.

“Nurses are often the first responders during violent situations at work,” said Megan Norman, who has worked as an RN in UCDMC’s emergency department for four years. “Our department is constantly subjected to dangerous encounters. It’s important that nurses can go into work feeling secure enough to provide the type of care our patients deserve.” 

“We have asked UC to honor the law and implement procedures to address the marked increase in violence we all face at work,” said Melissa Johnson-Camacho, RN, who has worked in UCDMC’s inpatient oncology unit for 11 years. “We are here to demand that UC fully comply with the regulations to protect our patients and the nurses who have dedicated themselves to caring for the members of this community.”

The nurses at UCDMC are asking UC to increase security staff, improve security in the parking structures, create unit-specific workplace violence prevention plans, and involve nurses and their union when creating and implementing workplace violence prevention plans, among other requests.

Workplace violence prevention is a critical issue for nurses who experience workplace violence at a much higher rate than other industries. That’s why CNA sponsored, fought for, and won S.B. 1299, state workplace violence prevention legislation, in 2014. This law mandated that Cal/OSHA develop a standard to ensure that all California health care employers have a comprehensive, unit-specific plan in place to protect health care workers in all facilities.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2018, RNs in private industry in the U.S. experienced a rate of 13.5 violence-related injuries per 10,000 full-time employees. The injury rate for RNs is more than three times higher than the violence-related injuries for workers overall in the same year.

CNA represents 2,800 RNs, CRNAs, and nurse practitioners at UC Davis Medical Center.