Note: Jesse delivered these comments to the California State Assembly Committee on Labor and Employment on April 17, 2024.

My name is Jesse Deol. I am a Registered Nurse in the Emergency Department at Encino Hospital Medical Center. I want to thank the committee for giving us the opportunity to speak today on AB 2975—the Secure Hospitals for All bill. This bill aims to reduce the threat of violence directed at healthcare workers. Its passage will make hospitals safer for nurses, our patients, their families and the entire hospital staff.

Workplace violence in hospitals—including violence involving weapons—is on the rise. For me, this threat became all to real on June 3 of 2022.

A patient arrived at our ER in distress after a car accident. We admitted him, checked his physical condition and addressed his other needs. Over the next few hours he became more and more agitated—something which is not unusual.

Read: It is difficult for nurses to give compassionate care when we are on high alert

Read: Legislation aims to curb the epidemic of hospital violence

My colleague was the first to be stabbed, by a weapon nobody saw. I came in after I heard her crash to the ground. I didn’t know I was stabbed until someone told me I was bleeding. The details that follow are still hard to recall. Our ER was evacuated, there was a stand-off with police. A doctor was also attacked. The hospital was in chaos.

Though our scars have healed, the attack left lasting emotional harm. It was difficult to return to the site where we were assaulted with a deadly weapon, and could have lost our lives.

My son is now in nursing school, and I worry about his safety when he becomes a nurse. I worry about my colleagues, and I know this same fear is driving nurses from the bedside, and increasing the strain on an already stressed workforce. AB 2975—which calls for adding metal detectors at key hospital entrances, and mandates that trained security officers check patients bags—is a straightforward approach to making sure that this doesn’t happen again.  I urge to you pass this bill. Thank you.