Introduction to Workplace Violence Response

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The page below is a sample from the LabCE course Preventing and Addressing Workplace Violence for Healthcare Employees. Access the complete course and earn ASCLS P.A.C.E.-approved continuing education credits by subscribing online.

Learn more about Preventing and Addressing Workplace Violence for Healthcare Employees (online CE course)
Introduction to Workplace Violence Response

Every healthcare facility should have a team in place responsible for overseeing a workplace violence response. The team should be trained and allowed to have the authority and support to meet their responsibility.
According to the FBI, the team should be responsible for responding to ALL reports of violence, threats, harassment, or other events or conduct that may frighten an employee.
Once a violent incident takes place, there should be a post-incident response and evaluation conducted by the violence prevention team. During the post-incident response, the first step is to provide immediate assistance/ treatment to the affected employees and take necessary measures to prevent others from being affected.
Physical injuries are not the only consequences of workplace violence. Some victims could suffer a variety of consequences in addition to their actual physical injuries. These may include:
  • Short- and long-term psychological trauma
  • Fear of returning to work
  • Changes in relationships with coworkers and family
  • Feelings of incompetence, guilt, powerlessness
  • Fear of criticism by supervisors or managers.
Assistance/treatment may include, among others, trauma-crisis counseling, critical incident stress debriefing, employee assistance programs. All of the assistance should be provided free of charge to the affected parties.
The evaluation would be used to find the root cause of the incident. This would provide valuable information to be used in preventing future incidents.