While healthcare workers have been forced onto the front lines of the pandemic, something else is plaguing hospitals and emergency rooms: violence. 

A recent survey by the National Nurses United found that nurses reported 22% more violent occurrences during the pandemic than at any other time, KRQE reported. 

“It’s a very rewarding profession, but there’s a dark side for sure,” Gloria Doherty, a PHD Nurse Practitioner and the President of the New Mexico Nurses Association, said. “The emergency room and the ICU are the top areas where abuse occurs, but that’s occurring more and more on the med surge floors.”

A video from the Albuquerque Police Department shows officers responding to the Lovelace Hospital in May where a patient was attacking paramedics and an officer commenting that he gets calls there at least twice a week, KRQE reported. The woman in the video was arrested and charged with battery on a healthcare worker, a fourth-degree felony in New Mexico. 

Doherty said that aside from patients suffering from alcoholism, drug abuse or mental illness, a nurse may also have to deal with angry family members. According to Doherty, most organizations culture on violence for healthcare workers on the job "is just part of the job."

“There’s probably not one night that I’m not admitting somebody who has the potential for danger,” she said. 

Doherty said that more behavior health providers and professionals, and having more nurses trained on how to de-escalate situations would help combat some of the issues of violence in hospitals and ERs. She added that having security checkpoints for visitors and more follow-through in reporting violence to the justice system to get people the help they need may make an impact and combat the issue of violence healthcare workers face daily on the job.