U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney of Connecticut has renewed his call for Congress to help curb rising rates of on-the-job violence taking place against health care and social service workers following the deadly shooting of Douglas Brant, a home health care worker in Spokane, Wash., earlier this month. Brant was killed while on the job as a visiting nurse serving senior patients.
Courtney is urging the U.S. Senate to pass the Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act (H.R. 1195/S. 4182)—a bipartisan bill introduced by Rep. Courtney, which has already been passed in the House and would take commonsense steps to ensure America’s nurses, EMTs, doctors, emergency responders, social workers, and other health care professionals are better protected while at work.