Fear-Free Zone: The Work Place

Your work place should, and can be, a fear-free zone. And yet often, it is not. Physicians and other healthcare staff report anxiety and tension from verbal abuse by both other staff members and patients.

When it comes to preventing work place violence of all kinds, intervention techniques are important to enact. They should be designed to assist in preventing such an occurrence, and to handle any incidents that have occurred. But to implement such a program, you may need a little background knowledge and support, the kind available to you through the use of MedTran's online learning modules. This is a vital area of employee training to master,  - and this kind of training is also the law.

Violence in the workplace, whether physical or verbal, is all too common an activity. It’s especially difficult to deal with in the healthcare profession, where there's very little room for margin of error, much less that caused by non-fatal accidents or poorly handled behavioral and administrated issues. Each year, more than 2 million individuals become victims of threats, harassment and violence. Workplace violence-prevention programs are vitally important, not only for potential victims but also in order to protect a company's clients and employees from any liability. Increasingly, employers are held responsible for failing to provide a safe, secure workplace environment.

In order to prevent violent episodes, or if a company has experienced one, steps must be taken to review all human resource procedures. A work place violence prevention program should be in place, and should include areas such as work site analysis, violence prevention pgorams for management and staff, employee involvement exercises, hazard prevention and control, and of course both safety and health training.

The program should include a written plan, and the structure of a threat assessment team. Having a thorough human resources policy in place as well as providing the structure for procedural reviews, background checks and reviews prior to hiring, and a crisis management plan are all key. In addition, the program should include an audit of the physical workplace for security, and on going employee training and safety reviews.

The most essential area is pro-activity. Healthcare facilities of all sizes should be aware of the potential for violence whether verbal or physical. They should be alert to employee safety. Violence can occur any time and place - in a veterinary office, in a physician’s examining room, in a pharmacy or hospital. The healthcare industry is hardly immune to this threat, nor are they immune from liability if nothing is done to prevent it.

Intervention studies in the health care environment have assessed administrative overview and behavioral issues on the job. It’s important to implement intervention research, using knowledge

of gathered data to set competent safety protocols for care providers and the workplace over all. This can be a sensitive issue, and having guidance as to how to approach it can be very important in creating a successful program - and a fear-free work place.

Administrators must address and resolve threats and violence if they’ve occurred, and implement both prevention and intervention plans. Outlining a proactive approach to violence that focuses on early prevention and intervention is important. The goal is to detect, manage, and resolve any behavior that generates concern in regard to potential violence.

The implementation of a Workplace Violence Prevention and Intervention Program is absolutely essential. And at MedTrainer - we can help you do just that.