As a physician and educator, I spend a lot of time thinking about how to make hospital life safer and more connected for everyone who sets foot inside. Lately, something has been weighing heavily on my mind: the growing acceptance of workplace violence as a routine part of the job in healthcare.
If you work in healthcare, you don’t need statistics to know the problem is real. You see it every day. But the numbers are stark. According to a recent American Hospital Association report, U.S. hospitals faced a staggering $18.3 billion in costs from workplace and community violence in 2023. This figure accounts for prevention, medical care for injuries, staffing losses, and the deep emotional toll on our teams.
Nearly half of nurses report being physically assaulted, and more than two-thirds have experienced verbal abuse. If you are a nurse, doctor, or any healthcare worker reading this, you are likely nodding in agreement. Maybe you have even been there yourself. These moments don’t just disappear when a shift ends; they follow us home.
The danger of normalizing violence
In my day-to-day role as a residency program director, one of my greatest challenges is ensuring the learning environment for our residents is not only educational but also safe. However, I see new signs posted every week reminding visitors to respect our caregivers. What troubles me most is how frequent these events have become and how easily they risk being normalized.
When verbal or even physical aggression happens daily, it begins to feel like “part of the job.” That is an unacceptable reality. Every week, I hear stories from our teams. “The patient’s daughter screamed at me because no one communicated a plan.” Or, “You’re not doing everything you can to help my father.” These situations tend to be even more intense in the critical care unit, where emotions run high and are often taken out on our nurses. While these emotions are human, violence and disrespect should never be treated as inevitable.
The danger of this normalization is twofold. First, it chips away at our caregivers’ sense of safety and dignity. Second, it discourages reporting, which leaves us without the data needed to design meaningful interventions. We can’t fix a problem we can’t see.
Understanding the true costs
The cost of violence goes far beyond dollars. When hospitals spend upwards of $3.6 billion a year on pre-emptive measures—like training, security, and prevention programs—it’s a clear sign this problem is touching every corner of healthcare. After an incident, the impact multiplies. There are repair bills, legal fees, and the heartbreaking toll of seeing dedicated colleagues take extended leaves or leave the profession entirely.
This erosion of safety doesn’t just impact us. When violence seeps into our hospitals and clinics, it affects our patients and their families. Trust breaks down. Satisfaction with care drops. It is incredibly difficult to deliver compassionate care when everyone is on edge, worried about what might happen next.
How technology and leadership can drive change
Here is where I get passionate, because I truly believe we can do better. Technology and committed leadership are a huge part of the answer.
For years, I saw colleagues reluctant to file incident reports. The system was often confusing and time-consuming. I heard a lot of, “What’s the point?” and “Will anyone actually do something?” But when we make the reporting process simple, safe, and intuitive, everything changes. With digital tools that work on a phone or tablet, it’s much easier to speak up about what happened, sometimes even in real time. Reporting must be straightforward and encouraged.
Digital documentation empowers us to capture vital evidence, alert leaders instantly, and deliver timely support. When you can report an incident on the spot, the data stays accurate and events don’t slip through the cracks. This data allows us to analyze the origins of these incidents and put targeted prevention strategies in place.
On a broader scale, integrating reporting tools with security systems and medical records gives us a full picture. When we can spot a pattern—like increased incidents near a shift change or in a specific department—we can put resources where they matter most. This is how smart investments in technology become real protection for staff and patients.
A call for culture change
Leadership buy-in is critical. Safety investments must include education about the true scope of the problem. We also need to embrace innovations, such as AI video analysis, that can help anticipate and prevent incidents before they happen.
Tools are only part of the solution. The real work lies in the culture we build together. We must encourage each other to report incidents, not sweep them under the rug. Training should cover not just how to report, but also how to de-escalate tough situations and support colleagues in need.
There are valuable resources available from organizations like the AHA and OSHA on building safer workplaces. Use them. Talk about them in your next team huddle. And please, do not forget your own mental health or that of your teammates. The emotional fallout from violence is real and deserves support.
At the end of the day, we are all in this together. While heightened emotions will always exist in healthcare, crossing the line into violence must never be accepted as “just part of the job.” If we fail to confront this normalization, we will continue to lose dedicated members of our workforce, ultimately diminishing the quality of care for the very patients and families we serve. By embracing technology, fostering open communication, and looking out for one another, we can change the story.
