Preventing Workplace Violence: Holistic Support Starts with Listening to Nurses

Nursing has always been a calling—one rooted in care, compassion, and a deep commitment to helping people through some of the most difficult moments of their lives. It’s that human connection that draws people into the profession and keeps them there.

In my years as a nurse, and now as a nursing leader, I’ve seen firsthand how powerful that connection is. And others see it too, with nurses being ranked as the most trusted professionals for the 24th consecutive year in Gallup’s annual Most Honest and Ethical Professions Poll.

That trust and commitment, however, are now being tested in ways the profession hasn’t seen before.

This National Nurses Week (6-12 May 2026) is an opportunity to recognize nurses’ extraordinary commitment to helping others. But it is also a moment to acknowledge a harder truth: The conditions nurses face today are more complex and high-risk than ever before.

The Reality on the Frontline

Moments of heightened emotion—when patients and families are experiencing fear, grief, or uncertainty—can also bring safety challenges. Increasingly, those challenges are outpacing the systems and support designed to prepare them.

Nurses across the United States are reporting occupational pressures. Nearly 40 percent of nurses say they intend to leave the workforce by 2029, with stress and burnout cited as leading causes. At the same time, workplace violence has become a widespread issue. In 2023, more than 80 percent of nurses reported experiencing some form of workplace violence in the past year.

When nurses don’t feel safe at work, it affects their well-being, which directly impacts their ability to provide care. If we want to nurture and sustain the nursing workforce, we need to take seriously what frontline staff are experiencing day-to-day, and how much those realities have shifted.

That starts with a simple but, unfortunately, often overlooked principle: Decisions about nurses should not be made without nurses.

A Systemwide Approach to Safety

Nurses’ calling hasn’t changed, but the environments in which they work have. Nurses are regularly being verbally and physically threatened and even injured while providing care to patients.

We need to listen to nurses and act on what they are telling us about their workplace conditions and their feelings of safety. Too often, their feedback is collected but not meaningfully acted upon. In environments where stakes are high, silence can be interpreted as inaction.

Nurses are inherently pragmatic. When it comes to workplace safety, their ask is consistent: support that helps prevent and manage critical situations, so they can focus on delivering care.

Addressing the safety challenges in healthcare facilities calls for a coordinated, system-wide approach anchored in clear governance structures that help organizations understand and manage safety risks. This is the recommendation of the Joint Commission, the leading healthcare accrediting body in the United States, which sets standards requiring hospitals to implement workplace violence prevention programs.

But what should a governance structure for workplace security include? My experience has taught me that the answer is again simpler than it seems: We need to provide the right training and the right tools. Listening only matters if it leads to action.

When nurses don’t feel safe at work, it affects their well-being, which directly impacts their ability to provide care.

Closing a Critical Gap

Unlike many other professions that regularly interact with the public in high-stress situations, nurses do not learn how to navigate these challenges in their education. Instead, they have to learn in real time on the job. Thus, training needs to meet them where they are—providing adaptable, realistic, and scenario-based learning to build their skill set to handle the complex incidents that happen every day on the job.

Technology also plays an important supporting role, especially when it’s designed to reflect the realities of our work.  In increasingly complex care environments, teams need tools that help extend awareness, improve communication, and enable faster, more coordinated responses. Used effectively, technology can help teams stay ahead of emerging situations, rather than just reacting after the fact.

A Moment to Reflect

Ultimately, safety in healthcare must be understood more broadly—not only physical protection, but also emotional and psychological well-being. Protecting nurses in this way starts with listening to them and building environments that reflect their needs.

When organizations take nurses’ concerns seriously, the impact extends far beyond individual incidents. When nurses feel supported, they are better able to stay connected to why they chose this profession in the first place, which benefits everyone.

This National Nurses Week is a time to celebrate our nurses, but also an opportunity to reflect on what more we can do to support them and ensure that their calling can continue for generations to come.

For more resources on workplace violence prevention in healthcare, revisit these articles from Security Management, “Shaping Workplace Violence Mitigation Strategies for a Healthy Hospital” and “A Record of Violence: Protecting Healthcare Staff with Data.” Review the ASIS International Workplace Violence and Active Assailant: Prevention, Intervention, and Response Standard.

Janice Walker, DHA, MBA-HCM, BSN, RN, is the inaugural chief nursing officer of the University of Florida (UF) Health clinical enterprise. She works to strengthen UF Health’s systemwide approach to nursing and clinical operations, providing executive leadership for nursing and key clinical support services across inpatient, ambulatory, and post-acute settings. Walker previously served as system vice president and regional chief nurse officer for Advocate Health’s Southwest Region, leading nursing operations across the U.S. states of Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Walker also served for many years as the system chief nursing executive for Baylor Scott & White Healthcare, the largest not-for-profit healthcare system in the U.S. state of Texas.

© Janice Walker, 2026