Nurses at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, Calif., and UCSF Hellen Diller Medical Center at Parnassus Heights in San Francisco held rallies this week on workplace violence prevention.
Both rallies took place on Dec. 3, one at 7 p.m. and the other at noon. UC Davis Medical Center estimated that fewer than 20 people showed up for the rally outside the hospital. A spokesperson for UCSF Hellen Diller Medical Center at Parnassus Heights counted about a dozen people participating in the rally there.
The California Nurses Association, which represents the nurses, said workers have security concerns and want the University of California to continue making improvements to comply with the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health Workplace Violence Prevention in Healthcare standard. Healthcare facilities covered by the standard are required to take various steps toward workplace violence prevention, including implementing and maintaining an effective workplace violence prevention plan as well as maintaining a violent incident log.
"Nurses are often the first responders during violent situations at work," Megan Norman, who has worked as an RN in UC Davis Medical Center's emergency department for four years, said in a news release. "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."
Requests from UC Davis Medical Center nurses include increasing security staff and creating unit-specific workplace violence prevention plans, the union said. Nurses at UCSF Hellen Diller Medical Center are requesting that the university take similar actions there.
UCSF issued a statement about the rally, saying it already meets the Cal/OSHA standard and continually makes efforts to make its work environment as safe as possible.
"In the past few years, we have increased security staffing in several areas of our facilities, most notably in the Parnassus Emergency Department and Langley Porter Psychiatric Hospital and Clinics. We also added a metal detector program in the Parnassus ED and have redesigned access control through our Mount Zion campus," the statement reads.
"In addition, we are improving our camera surveillance systems, patient risk assessments, and access to security services throughout our hospital locations and have increased the number of duress alarm buttons, card access controls, signage to promote public awareness of acceptable behavior, and staff education about risks related to workplace violence."
UC Davis Health said in a separate statement that it also has been working to improve safety at its Sacramento campus by hiring more security officers, improving lighting and security in parking lots and implementing new safety protocols in the emergency department, among other measures.
"UC Davis Health is committed to harboring a safe work environment, and plans are in place to continue to expand our security protocols across our 140-acre campus," the statement says.
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