Almost 30,000 healthcare workers have been subjected to physical, verbal or sexual assaults in the past five years.
The figures were released to the Sunday Times under the Freedom of Information Act.
Nurses accounted for six out of ten workplace assaults on healthcare staff between 2018 and 2022.
Sinn Fein's health spokesperson David Cullinane says poor staffing levels and overcrowding is contributing to the assaults:
"The first instance they need to be condemned. We have to take a zero tolerance approach to it - right across the healthcare services. Obviously we have to beef up security as one part of the solution, but we also have to address cultural issues in hospitals as well, and the overcrowding undoubtedly is playing a part".
