Joining Forces

After the poll results were in, ACEP joined forces with the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) to launch “No Silence on ED Violence,” a campaign aiming to support, empower and protect ED personnel by raising awareness of the serious dangers health workers face every day, and by generating action among stakeholders and policymakers to ensure a violence-free workplace for emergency nurses and physicians. This partnership kicked off in October 2018 and is still going (stopEDviolence.org).

At the close of ACEP’s 2022 Leadership & Advocacy Conference (LAC22) in early May, ACEP and ENA cohosted a press conference on Capitol Hill during which emergency physicians and nurses shared their personal experiences to raise awareness about the frequency of attacks within the emergency department and to push the Senate to move forward with the Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act.

“The pandemic continues to show everyone how vital emergency care can be, but it has only exacerbated many of the factors that contribute to violence in the emergency department,” said ACEP President Gillian Schmitz, MD, FACEP. “The health care professionals in our nation’s emergency departments are fully dedicated to caring for patients and saving lives. Now Congress has a critical opportunity to pass legislation to protect each of them from violent attacks on the job.”

Identifying Challenges

In 2020, ACEP was part of an action team sponsored by the National Quality Forum that included 27 experts and recognized leaders from the private and public sector committed to improving the safety of the health care workforce. The team developed an issue brief that includes specific set of priority challenges for policymakers and other stakeholders to address. See sidebar for the full list.