Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

To prevent gun violence, protect our hospitals

To prevent gun violence, protect our hospitals
Getty Images

Shoshana Ungerleider, MD, is an internal medicine physician in San Francisco, host of TED Health and the founder of endwellproject.org.

When President Biden and Vice President Harris spoke about fighting an epidemic from the White House Rose Garden last week, it wasn’t a virus they were talking about. "Guns are the number one killer of children in America, more than car accidents, more than cancer, more than other diseases,” President Biden said, announcing the creation of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention.


The choice of words, loaded with healthcare analogies, is no accident. For years, the government has been funding research studying gun violence as a public health epidemic, and the new office is designed to coordinate a public health approach to the emergency with more resources and support for survivors, families, and communities.

As the new office goes to battle against the gun violence epidemic, hospitals and clinics will be a key battleground — and it isn’t just because healthcare workers are on the front lines providing support for survivors. The healthcare profession has the unfortunate distinction of being one of America's most violent fields.

Health care workers are five times as likely to experience workplace violence as other workers, accounting for 73 percent of non-fatal injuries from violence in government data from 2018, the most recent year for which numbers are available. And it has only been getting worse: in a 2022 survey from National Nurses United, 48 percent of hospital nurses said they'd seen violence increase over the previous year.

In August, a man shot and killed a security guard in a hospital in Portland, Oregon. In May, a man opened fire in a medical center waiting room in Atlanta, killing one woman and injuring four other women. Last October, a man killed two workers in the maternity ward of a Dallas hospital. And in June 2022, a man shot and killed four people in a Tulsa, Oklahoma, medical office, including a surgeon he blamed for pain after back surgery.

The fallout is severe. Poor working conditions and rising incidents of workplace violence are leading to unprecedented burnout and attrition in the healthcare field, which is a direct threat to patient care. In 2022, the Surgeon General warned of a looming crisis in the nation’s health infrastructure with a projected shortage of three million healthcare workers in the next five years. In a January 2023 survey of over 18,000 nurses, 30% said they're looking to quit their career, with 63% of them seeking a safer working environment.

It's alarming that American healthcare workers now face more non-fatal injuries from workplace violence than even law enforcement officers. But there are efforts underway to create a safer working environment, which the Office of Gun Violence Prevention should help speed up to ensure that healthcare workers can be the powerful allies they need to be in the fight against the gun violence epidemic.

The American Hospital Association's Hospitals Against Violence (HAV) initiative has been developing programs on the national, state and local levels to prevent workplace violence and help hospital employees cope with the impact of violence. In September, Senators Joe Manchin and Marco Rubio introduced the bipartisan Safety from Violence for Healthcare Employees (SAVE) Act which would make attacking healthcare workers a crime under federal law, similar to the protections in place for flight crews and airport workers. A similar bill was introduced in the House in April by Representatives Larry Bucshon and Madeleine Dean.

Every day, healthcare workers put on their scrubs and face an unpredictable world, hoping to make a difference, to save a life. They shouldn’t have to fear for their own in the process. If we want to save lives, we have to prioritize saving our healthcare system.

Read More

The Economic Models that Made America Great Are Broken

American flag and money

Javier Ghersi/Getty Images

The Economic Models that Made America Great Are Broken

We all want an America where hard work pays, families thrive, and the American Dream is real again. Greatness starts with dignity for workers, safety for communities, and a fair shot for every kid. The promise is simple: if you put in the work, you should be able to raise a family and get ahead—period.

So why do we cling to what is obviously not working for everyday people?

Keep ReadingShow less
Meet the Faces of Democracy: Neal Kelley

Neal Kelley, who served as the registrar of voters for Orange County, California for nearly two decades before retiring from the role in 2022.

Issue One.

Meet the Faces of Democracy: Neal Kelley

Editor’s note: More than 10,000 officials across the country run U.S. elections. This interview is part of a series highlighting the election heroes who are the faces of democracy.

Neal Kelley, a Republican, served as the registrar of voters for Orange County, California for nearly two decades before retiring from the role in 2022. Home to nearly 2 million voters, Orange County, part of the Greater Los Angeles area, is one of the largest jurisdictions by population in the country and the third largest in the state. Kelley is currently the Chair Emeritus of the Committee for Safe and Secure Elections, as well as the statewide project manager for the 2024-2026 elections in Hawaii.

Keep ReadingShow less
Is America Still Welcoming Global Talent?
Close up of american visa label in passport.
Getty Images/Alexander W. Helin

Is America Still Welcoming Global Talent?

A few weeks ago, when new proposals limiting J and F visa expansion were open for public comment, immigration quickly became a hot topic again at our research center, where more than half the scientists come from abroad. Some worried about their plan, others traded news and updates about the H1-B. A colleague asked if I was anxious too. To my own surprise, I wasn’t.

I used to be. But after weathering turbulent visa policies under different U.S. administrations, like many other international scholars, I have learned to stay flexible and mobile. My U.S. visa for a graduate program was delayed due to tensions between the U.S. and China several years ago. Up against a deadline for the program, I pivoted to Japan to continue the research training. What felt like a closed door became a new window: I fortunately joined a world-class team in tissue-engineering vascular medicine, broadened my view of clinical care and research, and began bridging my path as both practitioner and scientist. Committed to strengthening the “bench-to-bed” pipeline—learning real-world needs and translating research to meet them—I chose the United States again to carry this work forward.

Keep ReadingShow less