State laws that address workplace violence in health care settings

Workplace violence (WPV) against health care workers is a longstanding challenge that impacts the well-being of workers and patients. State legislative efforts to address WPV against health care workers have accelerated in recent years, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study conducted a review of WPV-related enacted laws in health care settings across all 50 states over the last 10 years.

As of June 2024, 48 states had enacted at least 1 WPV law, and some states have enacted 2 or more laws. State laws were categorized into 3 types: penalties, prevention, and remediation. Forty-five states had laws that penalize perpetrators of WPV, 27 enacted prevention laws, and 23 had remediation laws. Ten states had laws combining penalties with either prevention or remediation, 17 states had laws covering all 3 categories, while 3 states had only prevention and remediation laws.

Understanding variation in state WPV laws is important to future efforts to evaluate the efficacy of different legislative approaches. This study provides a landscape for federal and state government to understand legislative trends, and can inform health systems on strategies that can be used to prevent and address WPV.