"We must take care of our nurses so they can take the best care of our patients," Pamela Cipriano, PhD, RN, president of the American Nurses Association, wrote in a recent post on the CDC's Safe Healthcare blog.
Here are four statistics on common injuries nurses suffer that Dr. Cipriano cited in her blog post.
1. Nursing has the highest rate of nonfatal occupational injuries, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
2. Nurses face injuries from manually lifting and moving patients — according to an American Nurses Association Health Risk Appraisal, 42 percent of surveyed nurses said their responsibilities include lifting or repositioning heavy objects, and that doing so is a work environment safety risk.
3. Assault is also an issue, as 1 in 4 nurses have been physically assaulted, Dr. Cipriano wrote. Bullying is also an issue.
4. Beyond physical injuries, nurses are also susceptible to emotional damage — 82 percent of nurses surveyed in the ANA Health Risk Appraisal said they had a significant risk for workplace stress.
"These dangerous conditions can never be accepted as 'just part of the job,'" Dr. Cipriano wrote. To help, the ANA developed a HealthyNurse Health Risk Appraisal portal for nurses to identify safety risks in their work environment. The portal also provides resources to help nurses develop better, healthy habits and serves as a place where nurses can compare their risk results against ideal benchmarks and national averages.