Government bodies are taking steps to protect home healthcare workers. However, are the measures enough to protect these people from the serious safety challenges that they are facing every day? And are these measures being implemented fast enough with violence against healthcare workers increasing in both frequency and severity.

In October 2023, a home healthcare nurse was murdered visiting a halfway house. As part of her job, she was providing medications to a client with a record of sexual assault – alone. She was one of nearly 1.5 million home healthcare workers in the United States who enter clients’ homes to provide essential care and services for people with disabilities or chronic conditions. According to the OSHA, home healthcare workers can include ‘home health aides, personal/home care aides, companions, nursing assistants or home health nurses’ and “are employed in patients' homes and in community-based services such as group homes.”