Hospitals, states and hospital associations are taking numerous steps to address a nationwide uptick in violent and aggressive behaviors toward healthcare workers. 

Montana and Colorado are introducing bills this season that could change physician assistant practice requirements.

A nationwide shortage of physicians has hospitals and systems scrambling to fill spots, especially as more physicians leave the workforce.

Treatment did not go as planned, there were complications during surgery, an injury is more severe than thought — whatever the case may be, sharing sometimes life-altering news with patients and their families takes an emotional toll on physicians.

New York City-based NYC Health + Hospitals unveiled a new effort Feb. 8 to encourage people from underrepresented backgrounds, ranging from middle schoolers to graduate medical students, to join its physician workforce. 

Forty-four percent of physicians report that they are burned out, and in an effort to address the issue sweeping the profession, the American Medical Association recently released a guide detailing tips to eliminate and reduce unnecessary work burdens.

Police say a man assaulted three hospital staff members at Navasota (Texas) St. Joseph CHI Hospital on Feb. 7, NBC affiliate KAGS reported.

Southwestern Vermont Health Care has debuted a new policy to prevent aggressive and violent behavior toward its healthcare staff, the Bennington, Vt.-based system said Feb. 2. Like many hospitals across the nation, Southwestern Vermont Medical Center has seen an increase in the proportion of staff reporting violent behavior from patients and visitors. 

Just as COVID-19 led to a much higher number of deaths for the public than what would have been anticipated without the virus, during the same time physicians in the workforce saw more than 600 excess deaths among their profession.

Nearly two-thirds of physicians report experiencing burnout, but the term burnout misses the larger issues: Physicians are demoralized and losing faith in the systems they work for, Eric Reinhart, MD, a physician at Evanston-based Northwestern University, wrote in a Feb. 5 guest essay for The New York Times.

Washington, D.C., has the highest percentage of female physicians at 49 percent, and Idaho has the lowest at 26 percent.

A Maryland Senate bill wants to create a task force to identify why its hospital emergency departments have the longest wait times in the country and find ways to remedy the issue, NBC affiliate WBAL reported Feb. 2.

Eyeing solutions to the national shortage of infectious disease professionals, a survey commissioned by the Infectious Diseases Society of America found that 65 percent of U.S. adults support forgiveness of federal student loan debt for infectious disease professionals as a way to help retain experts and attract new ones to the field.

Yale researchers found a machine-learning program could predict which physicians would leave the job and identified four variables that lead to high departure risk.

If reelected, former President Donald Trump says he will aim to punish physicians and hospitals who provide gender-affirming care to minors, according to a video published on his campaign website Feb. 1. 

Last year, 53 percent of physicians reported burnout. Among them, emergency medicine specialists had the highest rate at 65 percent, according to Medscape's latest report on physician burnout and depression. 

A condition that affects 42 percent of adults in the U.S. is one that medical schools only spend around 10 hours training future physicians on, a new study found. Obesity was formally declared an epidemic by the World Health Organization more than 25 years ago — in 1997.

A Wisconsin lawsuit could determine whether third parties can compel hospitals and physicians to provide treatments even when those treatments are not proved effective. However, no physician should have to choose between a legal imperative or their ethical obligation to patients, American Medical Association President Jack Resneck Jr., MD, wrote in an article published on the group's website Jan. 31.

A Missouri House bill aims to streamline the process for out-of-state physicians to practice in the state, the Columbia Missourian reported Jan. 31.

Colorado legislators are trying for a third time to pass a bill that would give physician assistants the ability to practice without physician supervision after meeting certain requirements, ABC affiliate KMGH reported Jan. 30.