Home Health & Hospice Week

Another senseless killing of a home health nurse on the job is bringing more attention to the increasingly urgent problem of violence against healthcare providers — especially in the home.

Press reports indicate that Joyce Grayson, a nurse with Elara Caring for over 10 years, was killed the morning she was scheduled to visit a resident at a halfway house for convicted sex offenders in Willimantic, Conn. Grayson’s body was found in the basement of the house after she failed to show up for later visits that day, Oct. 28. The patient was arrested on unrelated charges and hasn’t yet been charged with the killing.

Grayson “died in an act of violence at a home where she was providing care,” Elara says in a release. “Our team members … are devastated,” the agency adds. “As we move through this period of shock and grief and begin to turn our attention to where we go from here, the safety and wellbeing of our team members continues to be of paramount concern. Even with the many safeguards we have in place, it is absolutely critical that we work to ensure that our safety protocols and training remain as robust as possible and that our nurses have the support they need to safely care for patients,” says Elara CEO Scott Powers in the statement.

Legislators and healthcare workers gathered at the state capitol Nov. 1 to advocate for increased health care workplace safety measures, reports the CT Mirror. Ideas ranging from police escorts to making patients’ criminal histories transparent have been suggested, according to press reports.

At press time, a GoFundMe campaign for Grayson’s family had raised more than $47,000.