I learned that Grace was trying to calm a patient who was arguing with her boyfriend as she was wheeled into the preoperative area on a stretcher. The argument exploded, and the boyfriend pulled a knife, lunged, and missed his girlfriend, but struck Grace in her carotid artery. Having a colleague almost die from just coming to work and doing her job shook me to the core.

I was a novice nurse, still new to working at, according to the people who worked there, the “greatest hospital in the world”. It sat on the edge of a tough inner-city neighborhood. Grace recovered and, eventually, so did I. Later I spoke with a veteran nurse of the hospital and told her how much the event had disturbed me. Her response? “Bob, suck it up. It’s our job.” I believe she was angry at having been appointed as preceptor and was liberally dispensing the rough advice that had shaped and damaged her career. Her nursing specialty was bullying and belittling new grads. Luckily, I realized this and quickly moved out of her sphere of influence.

As nurses, we work in one of the most dangerous jobs in the nation. Violence is just one of the hazards that pepper our work. We must also cope with the incredible physical demands of hard work as well as exhaustion from long hours, unscheduled overtime and changing shifts.

In the course of the job, we face the constant risk of illness from exposure to infectious diseases and noxious agents; injury, especially musculoskeletal harm and needle sticks, as well as other accidents with sharps. Couple these threats with routine that can lead to poor performance burnout, mistakes, illness, and more, and you have the perfect storm that can shipwreck the best career.

— Robert G. Hess Jr., RN

In the circle of caring that we create around our patients, we nurses sometimes take our safety for granted. But patients come to us with all manner of baggage, and that sometimes includes horrific violence.

Even some of our colleagues surround us with their own issues, which include expertise in bullying and belittling. It’s not my everyday reality, but to some, it’s part of their workday routine. Given the enormity of these problems and their presence in current literature, we at Nurse.com decided it was time to address how to on the job. In this digital edition, we present an overview of the violence that stems from patients and families, the challenges to reducing such episodes and what nurses and others are doing to protect healthcare staff. We also discuss what hospital units are most prone to these instances as well as similar problems with violence that arise in community and home health settings.

In the digital edition, we also turn to the damage that arises from . We define the problem and how to report and ultimately prevent it. For patients and their families to turn on their caregivers is awful. But for caregivers to turn on each other is sickening. As a nursing profession, we need to widen our circle of caring beyond patients and their families to include colleagues. Turn to other nurses today, compliment their work and tell them how much you appreciate them.