Respect and Protect! “ MY MOMMY WORKS HERE” Campaign Advocates for Hospital Staff

A new statewide campaign is raising awareness about the violence that hospital staff endure every day.

“If you have a family member in health care, they most likely have a story, have heard a story, or have seen a story,” Schipp Ames of the South Carolina Hospital Association explained.

When you have a medical emergency, the hospital is a safe haven; nonetheless, workplace violence is not uncommon among hospital employees.

“A lot of folks don’t realize that healthcare is subject to more workplace violence than any other industry, healthcare workers are 5 times more likely to be a victim of workplace industries,” Ames stated.

According to SCHA, the majority of violent occurrences target nurses.

“The study we released last week, which was real data, using incidents in South Carolina hospitals overwhelmingly showed that over 90% of these incidents are initiated by the patient,” Ames stated. “Largely physical assault, verbal assault, unwanted touching.”

According to SCHA, violence has been progressively increasing in hospitals around the country. To address this, a new campaign has been launched in South Carolina.

“The ‘My Mommy Works Here’ campaign serves to draw awareness to an issue,” Ames stated. “These are the people that take care of us, that are trying to help us and we must treat them with respect, and kindness and remember that’s somebody’s mum that’s someone’s dad, that’s somebody’s aunt, that’s somebody’s brother.”

SCHA stated that this initiative comes at a critical time in the healthcare business.

“We believe this is a public health issue, this is a huge contributor to burn and if we have nurses that are leaving the bedside because they are burned out due to incidents of workplace violence and not feeling safe then we believe that is a public health issue,” Ames stated.

Prisma Health posted notices earlier this year alerting patients and visitors that they could face prosecution and other consequences if they were violent or touched healthcare professionals inappropriately.

According to SCHA, some hospitals around the state have increased security, including the use of dogs on security patrols.