April is Workplace Violence Awareness Month: A Month for Awareness and Recognition

Healthcare Security Leaders are Using New Tools to Make Healthcare Safer For All
Mike Hodges, MA, CHPA

As we take the month of April to raise awareness around workplace violence prevention, none are more acutely affected by violence in the workplace than those who work in healthcare. Healthcare workers are more affected by violence than any other profession, and those who protect healthcare workers are caught between the need to protect those workers; and protect their mission to care for their patients. This tension makes the here and now one of the most challenging times to be a healthcare security professional. 

The tension between the healthcare facilities' patient care focus and the ability to provide a genuinely secure environment has always been a critical challenge within the healthcare security industry. As the incidents of patient-to-staff violence have risen, the need to secure the environment has become much more than just providing for the physical security of facility perimeters and officer patrols. A secure environment has become more about how best to integrate security practitioners and practices into the patient care provided at the bedside. What is being asked of healthcare security professionals is growing in complexity.

These challenges to the work of the healthcare security professional have not gone unanswered. Still, they have required practitioners to problem solve in new ways, extending their scope of practice further and further into realms typically only operated in by Doctors and Nurses. Hospital Security Directors and Managers worldwide, as well as their professional organizations like the InternationalAssociation of Healthcare Security and Safety (IAHSS), have risen to this challenge by pursuing knowledge, growing their toolsets, and becoming the workplace violence prevention experts their organizations desperately need. This needed expertise has extended far beyond that of traditional security practice. It is an expertise that has included the pursuit of tools like clinical violence risk assessments, integrated flagging in the electronic medical record, improved threat assessment and threat management practices, and integrated intelligence programs that produce more and more relevant data for operational improvement. This growth in expertise has also included the ability to teach, train, and mentor others within the organization to advocate for violence prevention.

The ability to answer this need for the organizations we serve has boosted our ability to truly demonstrate the direct and tangible value of the security function. Workplace violence prevention has become the burning platform for security professionals to advocate for the return on security investment. As security professionals have worked to reduce acts of violence within their facilities, the direct and indirect returns on investment have become more tangible. Reduced worker compensations costs, lost time and productivity, and decreased employee turnover result from effective workplace violence prevention. In addition to these actual returns, there are now more and more links between violence prevention and improved patient care.

Studies are now identifying relevant reductions in medical errors related to reductions in violence in the environment. This includes reductions in adverse patient outcomes like restraint usage and reduced length of stay. The return on violence prevention investment is becoming more apparent in every case.

All this work, the pursuit of knowledge, skill, and ability surrounding violence prevention in healthcare serves as a testament to those who protect hospitals and healthcare facilities. The countless hours spent researching, advocating, and implementing violence prevention programs that make the environment of care safer for the care provider is a credit to the healthcare security industry. The ability to strive for a safer environment for staff and improvements in the care provided to our patients makes the healthcare security professional one to be celebrated. The transformation of security provider to security partner is a transition that warrants special mention as we spend the month of April raising awareness for workplace violence prevention. Together, we can work to transform healthcare and truly prevent violence, but we can also celebrate the work of the tireless security team, leveraging an everexpanding skillset to make healthcare safe for all.

Learn more about IAHSS Workplace Violence Prevention Education.

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