HJNO Nov/Dec 2025

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS I  NOV / DEC 2025 39 Karen C. Lyon, PhD, MBA, APRN-CNS, NEA Chief Executive Officer Louisiana State Board of Nursing censed healthcare facilities; prohibit- ing retaliation by certain employers in connection with reporting of health- care workplace violence; requiring the Louisiana Department of Health to maintain on its website public information regarding healthcare workplace violence; and authorizing enforcement actions by the Depart- ment. 3 • Ensure timely debriefs after traumat- ic events. Additionally, interventional studies are needed to test strategic reforms in early recognition of suicide risk and validate tools to identify best practices in suicide prevention among nurses, physicians, and all healthcare workers. n REFERENCES 1 Judy Davidson, et al., “National Incidence of Nurse Suicide and Associated Features,” Journal of Nursing Administration 54, no. 12 (2024): 649–656, https://doi.org/10.1097/ NNA.0000000000001508. 2 Allison Norful, “A Hidden Crisis; Nurse Suicide in America,” Becker’s Clinical Leadership, September 25, 2025, https://www. beckershospitalreview.com/quality/nursing/a- hidden-crisis-nurse-suicide-in-america/. 3 H.B. 312 (Act 461), Reg. Sess. (La. 2022). of the modern hospital where more elderly patients with multiple comorbidities that require increasingly complex technology and polypharmacy for care often surpass nurses’ abilities to cope. Thirdly, from verbal assaults to actual physical assaults, violence in the work- place is an attack on the well-being and safety of nurses. Understanding Risk and Taking Necessary Steps The medical profession must go beyond reporting on the prevalence of and risk factors for nurse suicide to understanding. As an example of what that looks like, take Allison Norful, an assistant professor at Columbia University School of Nursing and her team, who are exploring the biological mechanisms that contribute to vulnerability, including physiological and epigenetic pathways that link occupational exposures to suicide risk. 2 They are pursuing evidence on the relationship between stress-related biological changes, including stress hormone regulation and DNA methylation patterns, to examine the interplay between a nurse’s work experiences and biological responses. Their work suggests the following are necessary in the nursing workplace to guide improvements to protect the mental health of the nursing workforce: • Policy reforms to include required suicide prevention training embed- ded in orientation and continuing education. • Initiating supportive conversations to normalize recognition of suicide risk behaviors. • Enforcement of data-based, effective staffing ratios which recognize that patient needs vacillate and so too must their required nursing care. • Elimination of mandatory overtime. • Investment in workplace violence prevention strategies such as Act 461 in Louisiana that enacts reforms to address workplace violence in healthcare settings, including but not limited to establishing duties and re- quirements of licensed healthcare facilities with respect to addressing and preventing workplace violence; requiring the posting of certain cau- tionary signage at licensed healthcare facilities; requiring reporting of acts of workplace violence occurring at li- “Like hypertension, the higher-than-normal risk of suicide in the nursing profession has been likened to a silent epidemic.”