As the punches rained down on his face, Christian Burchill was paralyzed by shock.<\/p>\n
He was just trying to help, like he and every other nurse in the emergency department did every day, all shift.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat have I done? Why is this happening to me?\u201d he wondered as the blows kept coming.<\/p>\n
That terrible day at work proved a turning point that led Burchill on a mission to ensure others would not experience the same trauma. This fall, the Lancaster County resident will receive national recognition for his years of work on workplace safety in healthcare from an organization with global reach.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Christian Burchill, Ph.D., MSN, RN, CEN, director of nursing research and evidence-based practice at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health, sits at his desk at LGH in Lancaster on Thursday, June 18, 2026.<\/p>\n
SUZETTE WENGER | Staff Photographer<\/p>\n
\u2018Straw that broke the camel\u2019s back\u2019<\/p>\n
As an emergency department nurse at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in the early 2010s, Burchill was wrapping up his night shift when he noticed a patient who he had seen earlier sitting in the waiting room. Hoping emergency personnel hadn\u2019t overlooked him, Burchill called him over to a closet-sized triage area, connected by a glass panel. After learning the patient was from out of town, he offered to help him by calling a social worker on his behalf. But while he was on the phone, the patient got up out of his seat and began to hit Burchill in the face.<\/p>\n
Over the course of a couple minutes, the social worker realized what was happening, called security, and a guard came running across the room and tackled the patient.<\/p>\n
Burchill, who recovered, returned to work a few weeks later. But the assault changed his life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really loved being at the bedside for a long period of time, but that was sort of the straw that broke the camel\u2019s back, and it changed my research trajectory,\u201d said Burchill, who had previously been studying how teamwork in intensive care units affects patient outcomes. \u201cWe can\u2019t even talk about working together as a team unless we really understand what makes people feel safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, Burchill has received an honor from the Academy of Emergency Nursing for his contribution to research on workplace violence in healthcare and for his prevention efforts that are used in hospitals across the country. In September, Burchill will be inducted as a fellow with seven other nurses in the academy during a ceremony in Phoenix, Arizona.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
From left, Aarin L. Deibler, MSN, RN, CEN, NE-BC, director of nursing, and Christian Burchill, Ph.D., MSN, RN, CEN, director of nursing research and evidence-based practice, both at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health, sit in Burchill’s office at LGH in Lancaster on Thursday, June 18, 2026.<\/p>\n
SUZETTE WENGER | Staff Photographer<\/p>\n
Prevalence of healthcare violence<\/p>\n
A Delaware County native, Burchill, 63, spent the first 27 years of his career as an emergency department nurse in Philadelphia. In the years leading up to his attack, he began noticing an increase in violence toward healthcare workers.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, this scenario is not all that unusual, Burchill said.<\/p>\n
While verbal violence is the most common type of abuse, about \u201cone-third of healthcare personnel experience some form of physical violence every year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it\u2019s actually more dangerous to work in healthcare than it is in a coal mine, and a lot of that is related to workplace violence,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
According to a fact sheet on the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics website, healthcare and social service workers are five times more likely to experience an episode of workplace violence than workers overall.<\/p>\n
And of the personnel who are the victims of this violence, nurses experience it the most, because they\u2019re \u201cwith the patients in close contact, doing oftentimes physically uncomfortable things,\u201d Burchill said. Nurses in the emergency department and in psychiatric facilities are especially at risk.<\/p>\n
In the 2024 National Nursing Workforce survey, conducted by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing and the National Forum of State Nursing Workforce Centers, 12.3% of registered nurses left the profession due to workplace violence or bullying and 11% of licensed practical nurses or licensed vocational nurses left for the same reasons.<\/p>\n
Survey instrument<\/p>\n
Because of Burchill\u2019s experience, he shifted his research focus to workplace violence. As part of that, he created a survey instrument hospitals can use to measure emergency nurses\u2019 perceptions of safety from patient and visitor violence.<\/p>\n
Chief Nursing Officer Louise Dyjur and Trauma Program Coordinator Krystal Norris of Providence St. Mary Medical Center in Walla Walla, Washington, discovered Burchill\u2019s survey in 2025, following a patient-on-patient assault in their emergency department waiting room. After seeing Burchill\u2019s name repeatedly while reviewing research on the topic, they contacted him to get a copy.<\/p>\n
They already had plans to implement a weapons-detection system and increase security, but they wanted to measure how their staff felt about security before and after implementation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe heard from our people after the event that they weren\u2019t feeling very safe, and we started \u2026 thinking about how we could really get a handle on how our people were feeling, so we could do something about it, as much as in our control,\u201d Dyjur said.<\/p>\n
Nurses as scientists<\/p>\n
While Burchill works with hospitals nationwide on workplace violence prevention and has written more than 30 academic articles on the topic, at LG Health, his position encompasses more than his own research.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s not a lot of people who know that nurses are also scientists,\u201d he said. \u201cOver the years, I have transitioned into a role that is basically doing science \u2013 helping solve problems in nursing and healthcare from my perspective as both a nurse and a scientist.\u201d<\/p>\n
After leaving the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in 2013, Burchill worked as a nurse scientist at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, until he returned to Pennsylvania in 2020 to fill the first nurse scientist role at LG Health. As part of that facility\u2019s Magnet designation for excellence by the American Nurses Credentialing Center, leadership felt hiring a nurse scientist was important, said Aarin Deibler, director of nursing for LG Health.<\/p>\n
Burchill carries two titles \u2013 associate chief nursing officer for research, evidence-based practice and innovation at Penn Medicine, the University of Pennsylvania Health System and director of nursing research and evidence-based practice at LG Health.<\/p>\n
In his role, Burchill works to find evidence-based solutions to problems nurses face.<\/p>\n
One problem Burchill helped to solve had to do with patient falls.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe question is always \u2013 what aren\u2019t we doing that we need to do to protect patients from this type of harm (falls), so Chris did an exhaustive literature review, but also took it a step further,\u201d Deibler said. \u201cHe identified frontline staff, clinical staff, bedside nurses in informal leadership roles and taught them how to do it properly.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to using evidence-based research to problem solve, Burchill also helps nurses conduct their own research.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo create new knowledge, which Penn Medicine puts a lot of pride and effort into \u2026 Chris\u2019 mission is to make that easy to do and understand how to do it and not be afraid of it,\u201d Deibler said. \u201cHe\u2019s really been on a mission since 2020 to make that easy to accomplish and cheerleading them (the nurses) on to do it. We went from a baseline of very few people doing research to a large body of work being generated.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nurses at LG Health are not required to conduct their own research, Tim Zellers, chief nursing officer, said, but they are encouraged.<\/p>\n
And if they choose to do so, they have a mentor in Burchill.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe (Burchill) is constantly out there looking for opportunities to help develop and help teams work through finding out what is the best way of providing care to patients that ultimately leads to good outcomes,\u201d Zellers said.<\/p>\n
Closure<\/p>\n
After Burchill\u2019s assault, he received a lot of support not only his from his colleagues, but also from an assistant district attorney who prosecuted the case. Burchill\u2019s assailant served time in prison, and following his release attended a mandatory aggression management class.<\/p>\n
While Burchill felt he got closure, the attack profoundly affected him.<\/p>\n
\u201cComing into work every day and thinking about the potential for another attack or any attack, it just weighs on you,\u201d he said. \u201cIt takes its toll over time.\u201d<\/p>\n
WORKPLACE VIOLENCE BY THE NUMBERS<\/p>\n
ASSAULTS PER 100 NURSES<\/p>\n
2023: 2.712022: 2.592021: 2.372020: 2.222019: 2.19 <\/p>\n
*Source: PressGaney, a company that collects and distributes healthcare data.<\/p>\n
FINANCIAL COSTS<\/p>\n
In 2023, the annual financial cost of violence to hospitals was estimated at $18.27 billion in the U.S.Pre-violence measures, including mostly prevention work, were estimated at $3.62 billion.Post-episode costs for healthcare, work loss, case management, staffing and infrastructure repair were estimated at $14.65 billion. <\/p>\n
*Source: American Hospital Association<\/p>\n
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