Addressing Workplace Safety Concerns Can Be Key to Retaining Healthcare Staff
It’s Workplace Violence Awareness Month, a time intended to highlight the safety of workers across the country. And for those on the front lines in the healthcare field, this month is especially salient.
According to Verkada’s 2025 State of Healthcare Worker Safety report, the foundation of healthcare worker safety is fractured: 43% of all healthcare workers surveyed reported experiencing physical violence on the job. And the risk wasn't distributed evenly. Nurses were twice as likely to be assaulted than physicians, putting the backbone of patient care at risk.
Although employee attrition in healthcare is often attributed to factors such as burnout, there is another immediate factor driving workers away: they simply do not feel safe where they work. Today, 3 out of every 5 healthcare workers surveyed said they worry about safety in the workplace. As a result, workers are leaving the field in droves, and many more intend to follow in the coming years.
Physical security as a recruitment tool for healthcare professionals
Attracting new talent to the healthcare field is an uphill battle when the entry-level experience is marked by fear – and our research suggests that younger workers who are new to the field have experienced or witnessed workplace physical violence at a markedly higher rate than older workers. It’s clear that healthcare workers want to see change:
52% of healthcare workers surveyed said personal safety concerns are actively stopping people from entering the profession
91% of nurses who responded agree their employers need to increase security
The vast majority of respondents (84%) said they would feel safer if more security measures were in place, which means robust security can be a real differentiator for healthcare employers. But based on our data, there is a disconnect between what staff needs and what the workplace provides.
Moving toward a proactive approach to deterring workplace violence
Our research reveals a stagnation in hospital security in the face of increased workplace violence. 77% of healthcare workers said their company hasn’t changed its level of security in the last 12 months, and only 39% believed their organization uses the latest security technology. The end result: many healthcare workers feel exposed to harm.
Closing the security gap requires moving past traditional, record-and-review video systems. To protect staff, any security platform must identify threats before they escalate into injuries. That could include smart visitor management systems at the front desk, flagging high-risk individuals; real-time alerts that enable faster intervention when incidents occur; or AI-powered features designed to detect anomalous behavior and events. Several Verkada features address these scenarios:
Fighting detection: When a physical conflict arises, every moment matters for intervention. Verkada Fighting Detection utilizes AI to help identify the visual signals of a physical altercation – such as wrestling, pushing, or punching – and notifies staff so they can intervene rapidly.
Wireless panic buttons: Staff can press a button to automatically pull up the nearest camera feed for security, trigger a lockdown, or initiate a professional monitoring dispatch. It turns a silent request for help into an immediate, visually-verifiable response.
Person of Interest (POI) alerts: Protect the workplace against aggressive or previously-barred individuals by uploading their photo to a digital POI list. If the individual tries to enter the facility, staff will be alerted proactively so they can respond.
This Workplace Violence Awareness Month, the goal shouldn't just be to acknowledge the problem; it should be to solve it. Healthcare workers are asking for more than just awareness – they are asking for the tools and technology that enable them to do their jobs without looking over their shoulders.
Learn more about how we’re making healthcare workplaces safer.
* Verkada’s research was conducted online in the U.S. by The Harris Poll, on behalf of Verkada, among 1,027 U.S. healthcare workers between April 21-May 7, 2025. These were U.S. adults who work full or part-time in the healthcare industry and frequently interact with patients and/or the families of patients.
