Violence Prevention Best Practices
Guidelines/Recommendations
OSHA Guidelines for Preventing Workplace Violence for Healthcare & Social Service Workers
This booklet consists of general guidelines related to violence occurring in a workplace environment. It includes risk factors to identify violence, assess workplace violence programs and train and educate staff. It also provides guidelines such as a workplace violence checklist, incident reporting and record review.
Assessment tools
ASHRM Workplace Violence Toolkit
This toolkit, created by ASHRM, takes a proactive approach in preventing workplace violence. It includes policies and procedures, articles and education for staff to identify and reduce risks within the organization. It addresses violence affecting staff to staff, physician to staff, patient to staff and visitor/family to staff and provides interventions to deal with these occurrences.
Guidelines/Recommendations
Sentinel Event Alert: Workplace Violence
This sentinel event alert, published by The Joint Commission, was published to bring awareness of violence currently faced by healthcare facilities. It was developed to assist organizations by identifying risks, implementing interventions to reduce adverse events, training staff accordingly and evaluating processes in place.
Policy Templates
Sample Workplace Violence Prevention Plan
This workplace violence plan sample can be used to assist in developing your own organizational plan. The sample plan is written from a leadership commitment perspective indicating that prevention of violence is a high priority. The plan outlines all aspects including responsibility, authority, assessment, training, monitoring and investigation.
Guidelines/Recommendations
Violence: Occupational Hazards in Hospitals
An educational document provided by NIOSH on workplace violence. The information provided is based on research and covers violence risk factors, prevention strategies and dealing with the consequences of violence. The publication is written very matter-of-factly and is an excellent educational resource to use when training staff.
Guidelines/Recommendations
Article: Joint Commission - 7 Ways Hospitals Can Prevent Workplace Violence
This is a short article, published by Becker’s Hospital Review, that sets forth seven steps to prevent workplace violence. These seven steps were developed from information learned from the Sentinel Event Alert #59 in April 2018.
Safety and Security of Violence Prevention
Guidelines/Recommendations
APNA Seclusion & Restraint Standards of Practice
This resource is provided as a bundle relative to seclusion and restraints standards of practice. It discusses leadership roles in the use of restraint and seclusion therapy, appropriate training of staff, and performance improvement to evaluate compliance with standards provided. It reviews standards in depth to guide organizations to comply with regulations set in place.
Articles
AHRQ Reducing Workplace Violence with TeamSTEPPS
TeamSTEPPS provides resources to integrate processes and non-violent interventions to safely manage disruptive and aggressive patients.
Articles
Article: Hospital Advisory - Should Hospital Security Officers be Armed with Weapons?
This article provides pros and cons of whether security officers should be armed while working in healthcare facilities.
Articles
Run Hide Fight - Surviving an Active Shooter
This video provides techniques on handling an active shooter situation.
Articles
Workplace Violence Prevention Training Course for Nurses
This training tool is designed to assist healthcare workers in understanding the scope and nature of workplace violence issues.
Violence Safety Policies and Tools
Checklists
Contraband Checklist
This checklist is to assess patients upon entry into a facility for items that may be used to hurt themselves or others.
Policy Templates
Patient Observation Policy
This policy defines the different levels of observation that may be implemented to monitor patients effectively. It discusses the roles and responsibilities of staff monitoring patients requiring observation. It addresses education and training for staff who observe high-risk patients as well as monitoring of procedures utilized to safely care for these type of patients.
Checklists
BVC Violence Checklist
This is a risk scoring tool to assist staff in recognizing a patient at risk for violence. It defines behaviors to assess that may lead to violence and provides staff with an objective scale to identify patients at high risk for violent behavior.
Policy Templates
Sample Policy for Workplace Violence
A sample policy on workplace violence prevention that can be used as a guide in developing your own organizational policy. This sample is brief and to-the-point, making it easy for staff to understand.
Checklists
Behavioral Health Environmental Checklist
A basic checklist to help identify risks specific to the behavioral health population in a behavioral health patient care setting. This simple risk assessment will help reduce risks to patient safety in this population which may not be considered a danger in other settings.
External Resource
Workplace Violence Signage
This provides a sample of the LDH signage that is required to be post in healthcare facilities.
Guidelines/Recommendations
Workplace Violence Memo Act 624
This memo provides the requirements and reporting related to workplace violence plans and how to respond to violence.
Guidelines/Recommendations
TJC Workplace Violence Prevention Standards
New and revised workplace violence prevention standards from TJC effective 1/1/2022.