Anyone convicted of assaulting emergency room nurses and doctors in California will face jail time and heavy fines starting Jan. 1, 2025, when a new law protecting the workers goes into effect.

The California Medical Association created Assembly Bill (AB) 977, which was shepherded through the Legislature by former Assemblyman Freddie Rodriguez of Chino.

Rodriguez, who left the Legislature at the end of this year, said the bill was necessary to give health care workers the respect they deserved.

“One-third of emergency nurses have considered leaving due to workplace violence,” Rodriguez said in a social media post on June 3.

The bill unanimously passed the state Assembly and state Senate during last year’s session.

The legislation, which was signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sept. 29, ensures equal penalties for violence committed against health care workers in emergency department settings.

In the past, assaults against health care workers in emergency departments carried lesser penalties than the same assaults carried outside, according to the medical association.

“AB 977 will ensure that health care workers are afforded the same protections, whether they are inside a hospital emergency department or elsewhere,” the association wrote in September.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) reported in a 2021 study that about 44 percent of nurses experienced physical violence and that nearly 68 percent were victims of verbal abuse between February and June 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The bill increases the punishment for assault or battery against a physician, nurse, or other hospital worker in the emergency department from a maximum of six months to a maximum of one year’s imprisonment.

Emergency departments may also post warnings about the new law in their hospitals, stating they “will not tolerate any form of threatening or aggressive behavior.”

Those convicted of the assaults may also face fines not to exceed $2,000.

A doctor and emergency room nurse treat a patient at Mission Community Hospital in Panorama City, Calif., on Jan. 28, 2009. (David McNew/Getty Images)

State law defines an assault as “an unlawful attempt, coupled with a present ability, to commit a violent injury on the person of another.”

California also defined battery as “any willful and unlawful use of force or violence upon the person of another.”

For example, assault would be if someone swung at another person without hitting them. The action becomes battery if someone strikes the other person.

Existing law restricts punishment for assault and battery to imprisonment of no more than six months or a fine and jail time.

The bill was supported by multiple health organizations, hospitals, and law enforcement associations.

The California branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, the California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, the California Public Defenders Association, the Drug Policy Alliance, Initiate Justice, and other coalitions argued against the legislation.

The California Public Defenders Association opposed the bill, saying increased incarceration and fines were not in the public interest or likely to be an effective deterrent for the behavior.

“Patients are often combative, either through intoxication, stress, or mental illness,” the association wrote in an analysis of the bill. “Often the families are under a great deal of stress because of receiving bad news about their loved ones and reacting poorly to the news.”

According to the association, doctors, nurses, and other hospital staff in emergency departments have a right to do their jobs without being harmed, and they say the current state laws and sentencing structures accomplish that goal.