Workplace violence in healthcare: the crisis by the numbers
The scope of the crisis
Workplace violence in healthcare is not a marginal concern — it is the dominant occupational safety issue facing the industry. Eighty-one point six percent of nurses reported experiencing workplace violence in the past year, according to the 2024 National Nurses United survey. Nine out of ten emergency physicians reported being attacked or threatened in the past year. Healthcare workers face a workplace violence injury rate four to five times higher than the private sector average.
The types of violence span a wide spectrum. Verbal threats affect between 14 and 57 percent of healthcare workers depending on setting and measurement approach. Physical assault rates range from 0.5 to 16 percent annually. Sexual harassment affects 0.2 to 9 percent. Each of these categories generates different psychological and operational consequences, and each requires different prevention and response strategies.
Risk is not evenly distributed across the system. Psychiatric units, emergency departments, geriatric units, and rural facilities with limited security infrastructure consistently show the highest rates. Workers on night shifts, those working alone, and those in high-acuity areas face compounded exposure. Understanding which settings and which conditions generate the most violence is the starting point for any effective prevention program.
- National Nurses United 2024 Survey
- PMC 'The growing burden of workplace violence against healthcare workers,' 2024
- OSHA Healthcare Workplace Violence
The underreporting problem
A 2024 survey of Texas nurses found that 46 percent did not report their most recent workplace violence encounter. When asked why, more than half said it was because they did not expect anything to change. Others cited cultural normalization — 'it's just part of the job' — complicated reporting forms, fear of being perceived as unable to handle difficult patients, and uncertainty about what constitutes a reportable event.
This creates a vicious cycle that is difficult to break without deliberate intervention. Without data, leadership cannot see the scale of the problem and cannot make the case for resources. Without a visible organizational response to reported incidents, staff conclude that reporting is futile and stop submitting. The true incidence of workplace violence in healthcare is almost certainly far higher than what existing data captures — which means the published statistics, alarming as they are, likely understate the reality.
- Texas Nursing WPV Survey, 2024
The workforce impact
Forty percent of healthcare workers have considered leaving their positions due to safety concerns, according to the AHA's 2025 analysis of the burden of violence on U.S. hospitals. Among those who have experienced violence, 45 percent report being likely to leave in the next 12 months. Since 2022, approximately 138,000 nurses have left the workforce — a departure rate that has compounded existing staffing shortages and stretched remaining workers further.
The workforce impact of workplace violence does not operate in isolation. It intersects with burnout, which has been exacerbated by the same understaffing conditions that increase violence exposure. It intersects with moral injury — the distress that arises when workers cannot provide the care they believe patients deserve, sometimes because they are themselves unsafe. Organizations that address workplace violence only as a safety compliance matter, rather than as a workforce sustainability concern, miss the full scope of what is at stake.
- AHA, 'The Burden of Violence to U.S. Hospitals,' 2025
- CDC NIOSH Blog, May 2024
The financial burden
The direct financial costs of workplace violence are substantial: medical claims, workers' compensation, legal costs, and security infrastructure expenditures accumulate rapidly in organizations where violence is frequent. A single serious assault can generate tens of thousands of dollars in direct costs. Repeated incidents in high-exposure departments create recurring cost streams that rarely appear as a unified line item in budget analyses.
The indirect costs are larger still. Turnover driven by safety concerns generates recruitment and onboarding costs that average $40,000 to $60,000 per replaced nurse. Absenteeism following violent incidents, reduced productivity from staff working in a state of hypervigilance, and the ongoing cost of agency and travel staff to fill positions vacated by violence-related departures all compound the financial impact. Organizations that invest in violence prevention infrastructure typically recover that investment through reduced turnover alone.
- AHA, 'The Burden of Violence to U.S. Hospitals,' 2025
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