Tiffani Nodgren remembers the patient lunging at her and the next thing she knew she was unconscious on the floor of Backus Hospital where she works as a nurse. She was out for a week after the February 2025 incident with a concussion, she said.
Evette Brown, an LPN at a nursing home in East Windsor, said she has encountered verbal abuse on a regular basis for the last 10 years from younger patients who stay in the nursing home for short-term care. They curse at her, calling her names, and screaming at her, she said. She said she feels humiliated and worries the aggression may escalate.
Erin Burns, a worker at Albert J. Solnit Children’s Center – South Campus in Middletown, said she sustained two concussions within two months at the state-administered psychiatric facility for children ages 13 to 17. She said it is most difficult hearing her 10-year-old son crying, telling her, ‘Mommy they are going to kill you.’”
Nurses, lawmakers, AFT Connecticut and New England’s largest health care workers union say Nodgren, Brown and Burns’ stories of workplace violence are not unique but symptomatic of a dangerous issue in the healthcare industry that threatens individual workers and a sustainable workforce.
Following the assault of a nurse at Hartford Hospital earlier this month, two reported incidents of workplace violence regarding nurses at Backus Hospital and the murder of a nurse in 2023, nurses and healthcare workers say more should be done, including strengthening security measures and addressing staffing shortages that can exasperate the issue. Several lawmakers say that staffing is a significant issue at hospitals.
“No nurse or frontline healthcare worker should be concerned for their own safety when working to care for patients and save lives,” said Rep. Cristin McCarthy Vahey, a Fairfield Democrat and co-chair of the state’s Public Health Committee. “As a state, we need to assure our safe staffing laws are sufficient and fully enforced so our nurses have the proper support they need and deserve.”
McCarthy Vahey said it is critical that healthcare systems “ensure the proper support personnel — from secretarial to security — are in place during all shifts.
“This helps give nurses the time and ability to assess and care for patients,” she said.
Concerns about staffing
The state Department of Public Health did not respond in time for publication to questions from the Courant about whether hospitals have ample staffing, how big a problem it is in the state and whether DPH has enough resources to enforce laws around staffing and nurse to patient ratios.
State Sen. Saud Anwar, co-chair of the state’s Public Health Committee, said this past legislative session lawmakers approved additional staffing for DPH. But prior to that, Anwar said due to federal funding cuts, staffing has not been adequate to enforce laws such as the Hospital Staffing Law, which requires hospitals to be in compliance with their staffing plan 80% of the time.
“Healthcare services have become one of the most dangerous jobs nowadays,” he said. “Between the physical trauma from the repetitive injuries, but also the violence from patients or their families or the emotional, physical endangerment that many of the healthcare workers feel is a threat to our sustainable workforce. We have had meetings with the Connecticut Nurses Association and some of the nurses impacted have spoken about how this is daily trauma, emotional trauma and physical trauma from abuse.”
It is difficult to gauge exactly how many incidents have occurred in healthcare facilities in the state because Connecticut does not currently have a comprehensive statewide reporting system that tracks incidents of violence against healthcare workers across settings.
“Individual healthcare organizations collect information, but there is no single statewide database that provides policymakers with a complete picture,” said Rep. Rebecca Martinez, a Plainville Democrat and health care worker for 26 years who is the co-chair of a new working group tasked with examining how the state can improve healthcare worker safety through the statewide Health Information Exchange.
National statistics show that workplace violence of healthcare workers is widespread.
The American Nurses Association found that one in four nurses reported being physically assaulted on the job. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that between 2021 and 2022 there were approximately 57,610 nonfatal workplace violence injuries requiring time away from work across all private industries. Nearly 42,000 of those occurred in the healthcare and social assistance sector. The need for psychiatric care in hospitals is also ballooning.
Griffin Hospital is one of three in the state the CT Mirror reported is “reimagining the emergency room experience for behavioral health patients.”
Griffin Health CEO Pat Charmel said in an October press conference that “the number of patients arriving at the hospital in a psychiatric crisis had increased by 50% since 2019,” according to the CT Mirror.
Martinez said that staffing continues to be one of the biggest challenges facing hospitals.
“When healthcare facilities are short staffed, there are fewer caregivers available to recognize escalating situations, assist colleagues, or respond quickly when help is needed,” she said.
Martinez said there are commonsense steps to improve safety in healthcare settings including “maintaining safe patient-to-staff ratios, investing in effective security, workplace violence prevention programs, de-escalation training, stronger reporting systems, and better communication between healthcare providers.”
‘Staffing is in shambles’
Rachel Rooney, press secretary for SEIU 1199, New England’s largest health care worker’s union, confirmed that 66 of the 300 workers at the Solnit South facility in Middletown are out on worker’s compensation related to injuries received there.
Dozens of DCF Solnit South employees joined lawmakers and the leadership of SEIU 1199 on July 21 arguing that the facility is underfunded, leading to “dangerous staffing shortages, a deteriorating facility and a lack of essential programs for the healing of young people in their care,” according to the leadership of SEIU.
They called for at least $21 million to “restore and expand staffing, rebuild therapeutic programming and create three specialized public-sector programs to meet the full range of needs of the children of Solnit,” SEIU leadership said in a release.
Burns said she was first injured several months ago when she was breaking up a fight between two youths and was struck over the head with a walkie-talkie.
After recovering from her injuries and returning to work, she said she was punched in the head by another youth, sustaining another injury. She is now out again on worker’s compensation and says that she has severe headaches and is unable to drive. She said she can’t watch television without getting headaches.
The children she works with have undergone “incredible trauma and neglect in their lives.
“They have very complicated diagnoses,” she said “They are not some kind of terrifying patient. They are the same kids that we were serving 10, 15 years ago. The fundamental difference now is that staffing is in shambles. The actual Solnit facility has not been improved upon.”
She said her assaults were preventable “if you had more staff and support.”
She described the facility as having black mold in the bathrooms, and broken doors and windows which are boarded up.
“It is dire,” she said. “We are putting them in a somewhat dysregulated and often unsafe environment.”
Through all of it, she said she still wants to go back to work.
“I care deeply about the kids we serve,” she said.
Ken Mysogland, chief administrator of external affairs for DCF, said in an email that “Solnit plays a critical role in the community by caring for youth with acute needs, and our priority is delivering high-quality care for patients while ensuring the safety of staff.”
He said DCF approved over 56 position refills since mid-April to “meet outstanding needs and are approving new RN and CSW positions to cover deficits in the negotiated staffing plan.
“Recruitment and retention activities are ongoing,” he said. “We are working in partnership across agencies to update hospital dorms, and resolve other facility needs. To date, $7.5 million between bonding and general funds have been approved for expenditure through the year.”
He said that 40 employees are out on worker’s compensation and that turnover has presented challenges, but he believes many of the plans will promote greater retention.
‘It happens on a daily basis and multiple times a day’
A nurse at Backus Hospital in Norwich for four years, Nodgren said the night she sustained a concussion began when a patient became agitated about moving to a higher level of care.
The patient became angrier, pushed one nurse, kicked another and then lunged at Nodgren, she said.
“I somehow turned my head at the very last second and he punched me in the back of my head and knocked me out,” she said.
She said physical and verbal assaults are common.
“Verbal assaults can range from a patient yelling at you to a patient threatening you, to calling you slurs, to a patient throwing a urinal at you that is full of urine, or hitting you or spitting at you or kicking or whatever it may be,” she said. “It happens on a daily basis and multiple times a day. We have patients swatting at us and trying to bite us on a daily basis.”
She said there needs to be more accountability.
“If you go out right now and punch a police officer, what is going to happen in the first 30 seconds?” she said. “You’re going to land yourself in cuffs and in the back of a cruiser. That doesn’t happen in healthcare. I think there needs to be patients receiving repercussions for their actions, not just a slap on the wrist.”
Mary Dipietro is on the workplace violence committee at Backus Hospital. She said there have been discussions about metal detectors at the hospital. She said due to complaints, the hospital added more security guards on the floor. Still, she said, nurses are assaulted by patients in psychiatric units and staff struggle with higher patient loads and sicker patients.
“People are really critically sick when they come in,” she said. “They wait until the last minute, which makes them more at risk and confused. And we just don’t have enough staff.”
She said the hospital experiences about a dozen cases every month of physical incidents in the hospital, whether it is a patient hitting a nurse while they are getting cleaned up or a patient spitting at them.
Donna Handley, RN, East Region president for Backus Hospital, said, “We consistently evaluate our safety protocols and are evolving to meet the changing environment.
“We are committed to being the safest place for our colleagues to provide care for our patients, families, and communities,” she said.
Tina Varona, senior director for media relations at Hartford HealthCare, which owns Backus Hospital and Hartford Hospital, acknowledged the incident with the nurse at Hartford Hospital earlier in the month.
“While the initial report referenced a strangulation, no colleague was strangled in this event,” she said. She said to protect “the privacy of both the colleague and patient, Hartford HealthCare was unable to comment on the specific facts related to the incident.
“Safety is the highest priority at Hartford HealthCare and our hearts go out to our colleagues who face difficult situations with grace and courage, often treating dysregulated patients,” she said. “Across the nation, threatening behavior and violence are on the rise, and we remain fully committed to being the safest place for our colleagues, patients, families, and communities.”
Lt. Aaron Boisvert of the Hartford Police Department said the incident at Hartford Hospital was an “inactive minor assault.
“An arrest warrant was issued and the suspect was arrested,” he said in an email.
Varona shared recent upgrades to promote safety across Harford HealthCare including hiring a system vice president of public safety with extensive experience in the FBI and Secret Service; adding armed guards; a team of 400 safety and security professionals protecting buildings; training for public safety officers; intensive de-escalation training for frontline colleagues and public safety officers; partnerships with local departments and first responders; constant public safety patrols across campus; weapons detection technology in high risk locations; hundreds of security cameras and other technologies deployed; and piloted visitor management system at hospital entrances.
“As the environment continues to evolve, we continually assess and strengthen our safety protocols and security measures to ensure we are prepared to meet emerging challenges,” Varona said. “We have a heightened and continued focus on protecting our colleagues and everyone who enters our facilities, and are focused on maintaining a safe, secure environment for our colleagues, patients, and the communities we serve.”