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2019 Regular Session
HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOL UTION NO. 60
BY REPRESENTATIVE DUSTIN MILLER
A CONCURRENT RESOL UTION
To urge and request the Louisiana Health Works Commission, with assistance and guidance
from the Nursing Supply and Demand Council and the Department of Children and
Family Services, to study and make recommendations concerning potential policy
changes for creating safer workplace environments for physicians, nurses, and social
service workers in this state, and to report these recommendations to the legislative
committees on health and welfare and on labor and industrial relations.
WHEREAS, in a 2016 report entitled "Workplace Safety and Health: Additional
Efforts Needed to Help Protect Health Care Workers from Workplace Violence", the
Government Accountability Office reported that, based on an analysis of Bureau of Justice
Statistics data, over seven hundred thirty thousand cases of healthcare workplace assaults
occurred over the five-year span from 2009 through 2013; and
WHEREAS, the healthcare and social service professions experience the highest
rates of injuries caused by workplace violence; physicians, registered nurses, practical
nurses, nurse aides, mental health professionals, home health providers, and personal care
attendants are all at high risk of such injuries; and
WHEREAS, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that healthcare and social
service workers suffered sixty-nine percent of all workplace violence injuries in 2016 and
are nearly five times as likely to suffer such injuries than workers overall; and
WHEREAS, workplace violence in healthcare and social service sectors is
increasing; BLS data shows that private sector injury rates resulting from workplace violence
in healthcare and social service professions rose by sixty-three percent between 2006 and
2016; and
WHEREAS, due to under-reporting of injuries sustained in episodes of workplace
violence, actual injury rates from workplace violence are likely to be far higher than those
reflected in official statistics; and
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WHEREAS, violence against workers in healthcare settings results most commonly
from assaults by patients, clients, and persons accompanying patients or clients; and
WHEREAS, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration
(OSHA), of the nearly twenty-five thousand workplace assaults reported annually,
approximately three quarters, or over eighteen thousand assaults, occur in healthcare and
social service settings; and
WHEREAS, OSHA publishes a guidance document entitled "Guidelines for
Preventing Workplace Violence for Healthcare and Social Service Workers"; however, this
guidance is currently not enforceable; and
WHEREAS, absent an enforceable standard for preventing workplace violence,
employers are not ultimately required to implement a violence prevention program and
workers have insufficient protection from violence in their places of employment; and
WHEREAS, in March and April of 2019, several healthcare workers in Louisiana
were victims of high-profile workplace violence incidents; tragically, after one of these
attacks, a Baton Rouge nurse died as a result of her injuries; and
WHEREAS, these violent incidents illustrate the critical importance of workplace
safety in healthcare settings and the urgent need to raise awareness of this longstanding
issue.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
urge and request the Louisiana Health Works Commission, with assistance and guidance
from the Nursing Supply and Demand Council and the Department of Children and Family
Services, to study and make recommendations concerning potential policy changes,
including but not limited to potential legislation, for creating safer workplace environments
in this state for physicians, nurses, and social service workers, including workers employed
by the department.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Louisiana Health Works Commission shall
submit a written report of the recommendations called for in this Resolution to the House
Committee on Health and Welfare, the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare, the House
Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations, and the Senate Committee on Labor and
Industrial Relations on or before February 1, 2020.
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BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this Resolution be dedicated to the memory of
Lynne Truxillo.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the
chairperson of the Louisiana Health Works Commission, the chairperson of the Nursing
Supply and Demand Council, the secretary of the Department of Children and Family
Services, and the family of Lynne Truxillo.
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
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