Learning to de-escalate potential violence to health care workers in health care settings is part of this training session at Michigan Medicine. Also part of the team is K-9.
Reduce Workplace Violence with These Three T's By Brian Uridge
H
ere’s an eye-popping factoid: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, health care workers are five times more likely to suffer an intentionally inflicted injury at work than are workers in any other field. Pre-pandemic statistics, shown for 2011-2018 in Chart 1, below, indicate that workplace violence is growing at an alarming rate. But over the past two years we know that intentionally inflicted injuries – many delivered by those infected with the COVID virus or their family members – are on an even steeper rise.
WHAT IS WORKPLACE VIOLENCE?
Health care professionals, particularly nurses and nurse aides, report an increase in cases of being pushed, punched, spat upon, yelled at, threatened with bodily harm (including shooting), and being stalked (when leaving the hospital) since the pandemic began.
12 SPRING 2022 | ARKANSAS HOSPITALS
Some COVID-related incidents occur because, in the quest to keep case transmissions down, family members not allowed to accompany loved ones into the hospital become angry and abusive. Some occur because patients refuse to believe they have a diagnosis of COVID. And some occur when a patient’s “preferred” treatment – hydrochloroquine, ivermectin, herbal concoctions, and other non-authorized treatments touted on the internet – are not acknowledged and administered. In Missouri, nurses and other staff at Cox Medical Center in Branson are experiencing such a surge in assaults from patients that they now have panic buttons installed on their badges. If a staff member is in danger and the panic button is pushed, security is alerted, and a tracking system pinpoints the staff member’s location. Help is immediately sent. Between 2019 and 2020, assaults by patients tripled at the Branson hospital. In 2020, 123 attacks against hospital staff were reported – up from 40 in 2019. Injuries related to the assaults jumped from 17 to 78 during the same period.
