Are you in the well being care field? If you are, and have been for at least a year, I bet you already have stories about workplace violence happening where you work. My focus in this post is on a strange phenomenon which has existed in the health care field for a lengthy time, but nowhere else where workplace violence is a “given.”
There is the frequent belief in the well being care business, that violence in the workplace is “just a part of the job.” This belief is held almost universally, from the floor nurse and nursing assistant, right up by means of management to the highest level of administration.
And, the frequent approaches for dealing with the reality that the healthcare business ranks 3rd out of all occupations for the number of workplace violence attacks that occur every year, range from denial to relying on patient agreements drafted by an attorney who believes that such a device will avoid an irrational, deranged, or agitated individual from lashing out!
The fact that, just like most other businesses, even if the facility has a workplace violence strategy or policy, there is a curious absence of defensive training for the personal safety of workers.
I say “curious,” simply because in every other business where violence in the workplace is a given – where it is observed as “just part of the job” – there is mandatory training to defend the employee from harm throughout these incidents. If we look at industries and occupations like:
Law enforcement
Physical security, and…
Military service
…we can see that violence is, or could be, a natural component of the job.
And, if we can see that healthcare workers are subject to constant and in no way-ending contact with patients, family members, and guests who might be suffering from the effects of discomfort, grief, mental disorders, and/or the negative effects from the interactions of medications…
…the situation for the average nurse or other medical expert is the exact same as that of the police officer.
In fact, with statistics showing that the average nurse is assaulted 1 to 3 times per year, it’s worse!
And however, there is little to nothing in the way of individual safety or self defense training to safeguard these workers from what is obviously “a part of the job.”
The point here is this…
If other occupations where violence is a natural component of the job have necessary and required training to protect the worker – why do healthcare administrators believe their industry is various?
When there are laws that all of us need to abide by that make it illegal to assault a police officer – and police officers who are armed with weapons and powers of arrest – still get attacked…
…how can administrators, and the lawyers who work for them, believe that a patient or employee contract will prevent the very same factor from happening to a physician, nurse, or technician?
There is a growing trend inside the medical industry to move toward offering the essential training to not only prevent and prosecute acts of workplace violence against medical experts, but to supply the necessary training that would permit workers to defend against and escape from violent attacks.
It is time to change the regular operating procedure in the medical business from one of denial and apathy, to one of proactive preparedness. Only then will workers be more safe, and the healthcare worker will have the same benefit of defensive and individual safety training that is provided and offered to other occupations where violence is “just component of the job!”