Joyce Grayson

Joyce Grayson was a 63 year old nurse in Connecticut. She worked Home Health and had been at the same agency for over 10 years. She was a foster parent and had received several awards from the state regarding her stellar fostering abilities. She loved her job and her patients. On Saturday, October 28th, she was visiting patients per a usual work day. She had set up her appointments for the day and went to see her first patient. When she didn't show up for subsequent patients and her family could not get ahold of her, the police were called. Her phone was tracked to the address of her first patient. Later Joyce's body was found in the basement of her patient's home. An investigator stated it was the worst murder he had seen in his 27 year career.

This did not have to happen. Joyce did not need to die. Our legislators need to take action to protect us from violent crimes. Prosecuting as a felony is not enough. Violence needs to be prevented. The only was we can be protected is for Congress to pass legislation that forces OSHA to hold healthcare organizations accountable and requires implementation of comprehensive prevention programs. This is what the Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Workers Act does. There is a version of this bill in both the House and the Senate (HR 2663; S 1176). However, each version is stalled in several of the Congressional Committees. We need to urge our Congressmen/women to cosponsor these bills and move them from committees to the floors for a vote. This is the 3rd Congressional session that a version of this bill has been introduced and gone nowhere. This is a numbers game. The more members of Congress hear from us, the more inclined they are to act. There are a few ways to make contact with your member of congress. 1) I can give you a letter that you can copy and paste into an email to your representative or senator, or 2) you can add your voice to the RNAction Center that is an arm of the ANA. Either way works, but I have learned in the past week that personalized stories from constituents goes much further than the auto-generated letters, therefore, I am happy to create a semi-personalized letter for you in which you can personalize more and send off to the appropriate member of Congress. I will do all of the foot work for you, all you will do is personalize and copy and paste. Just let me know your city and state, and I will do the rest. We have to take action or there will be more nurses like Joyce.