National Nurses United

CE Home Study Course Workplace Violence Assessing Occupational Hazards and Identifying Strategies for Prevention, Part 2 the event of a violent incident is to fire the employee. In cases where a patient has acted out unexpectedly, or assaulted and injured a nurse or other healthcare employee, employers should NOT be allowed to escape accountability for failure to implement effective workplace violence prevention program by blaming the patient. To have the patient arrested and charged with committing a felonious Description assault may be unjustified and unethical. Discrimination against This home study course examines conditions in the healthcare envivictims should NOT be tolerated. Relevant laws and policies should ronment associated with workplace violence. Included is a review of be reviewed regularly as a form of primary prevention, to see if there key terms, relevant definitions, practices, standards, and regulatory are ways to improve employee safety without jeopardizing individpolicies so registered nurses (RNs) can more quickly identify threatual victim or patient rights. ening behaviors and situations where the potential for lateral, horiLaw enforcement agencies should adopt a preventive approach zontal, and physical violence exists. It further examines the scope of to violence in the workplace. In recent decades, many police departthe problem of workplace violence and how RNs can be proactive in ments have changed attitudes and traditional practices in domestic their practice settings to promote workplace security and mitigate and workplace violence cases, intervening earlier and paying the potential for harm to themselves and their patients. RNs will increased attention to protecting the victim as well as arresting and learn strategies for taking action and, as circumstances require, prosecuting the alleged perpetrator. Clear, comprehensive, and unichanging administrative policies that encumber their ability to proform workplace and legal guidelines should be discussed and widely vide safe, therapeutic, and effective patient care. Selected highlights disseminated to inform employers how they can strengthen vioof publicly reported assaultive and violent incidents which resulted lence-prevention measures within existing laws, without infringing in harm or death to healthcare workers will help nurses formulate a on due process, privacy, defamation laws, victims��� rights, or other corrective action plan for effectively dealing with the aftermath. employee rights. Over the past decade, hospital corporate governance and comWhat then, must we do? Conduct an Environmental pliance has been the subject of increasing attention and scrutiny. Assessment and Take Control Continuing examples of questionable behavior by individual Though numerous studies illustrate the scope of violence against employees and executives give rise to critical questions of how nurses, and many comprehensive guides exist to implement workcorporate ethics efforts can be improved and can place violence prevention programs and state laws address the underlying causes of workplace vioand regulations governing workplace violence, hospilence and misconduct, as well as the growing tals still fail their employees in implementing vioSubmitted by the Joint demand for proactive, socially responsible, and lence prevention programs. Whether domestic or Nursing Practice sustainable business practices. workplace violence follows an employee into the Commission, DeAnn Corporate responsibility refers to the fulfillment workplace, employers should support, protect, and McEwen, RN, and of obligations that a healthcare employer owes its help the abused worker and not punish her or him. Hedy Dumpel, RN, JD employees, patients, the community and the various When an employee is being stalked, harassed, or Provider Approved licensing and accreditation bodies and other stakeabused at work by a domestic partner, other personal by the California holders. Corporate compliance officers and programs acquaintance, a patient, patient���s relatives/significant Board of Registered are often criticized for falling short of respecting the others, or other providers or management personnel, Nursing, Provider letter and spirit of the law and their employees��� conthe employer should take steps to separate the victim #00754 for 4.0 contact hours (cehs). cerns. Managers should take an active role in comfrom the abuser, keep the abuser out of the workRecognized by all municating the workplace violence policy to all place, and make the victim���s work space physically states with the excephealthcare employees. This helps to create globally more secure. An employer should have sufficient, tion of Arkansas, consistent ���fixed reference points,��� which arms specially trained staff and/or law enforcement perDelaware, Massachuemployees with the information needed to act in sonnel present and available to protect the staff nurssetts, Montana, North Carolina, and order to hold their employers accountable. es, patients, visitors, and other employees. South Carolina. There are actions that RNs can take, starting with In some cases, regrettably, an employer seeking an overview of existing state laws, OSHA, NIOSH, the quickest and easiest way to avoid responsibility in 14 N AT I O N A L N U R S E W W W. N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G MARCH 2012 PHOTOS.COM This home study CE is part two of a two-part series. The first installment appeared in the January-February 2012 issue of National Nurse and is required reading for successful completion of this home study course.

• Cover