CAL/OSHA's new Safety Standards Protecting Health Care Workers

In 1995 I wrote my first continuing education unit (CEU) employee safety article relating to nurses and other health care professionals.

Nursing Spectrum Magazine the predecessor to Nurse.com published it and advised me I was the first non-clinical to deliver a CEU to their audience.

Back then, I served as Director of Human Resources for a large home health care agency and part of my job was to serve on the organization's safety committee.

Learning my work was reaching a national audience of dedicated nurses through Nursing Spectrum was an honor. I received some feedback from my readers stating they experienced on-the-job mistreatment and that they found the information I related on the subject helpful.

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration ("OSHA") reports that more workers are injured in the healthcare and social assistance industry sector than any other in this nation. Source: https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/healthcarefacilities/index.html

In April 2017, a new safety order providing protections from workplace violence to health care workers went into effect in the state of California and will be enforced by The Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH), better known as "Cal/OSHA."

The new regulation is called “Workplace Violence Prevention in Health Care" and is codified at the California Code of Regulations, Title 8, Section 3342.

The California standard is a multi-faceted approach to workplace violence prevention. It requires healthcare providers to develop workplace violence prevention plans, implement training programs, and maintain records on certain workplace violence-related incidents.

To learn more about this new standard go here:

Additionally, Cal/OSHA's website is here: