What obligation does a health care facility have to protect workers from violence?

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Overview

A new initiative has been introduced to educate nurses, health care workers, and social services workers on how to prevent workplace violence where you work. Write a 750–1,000-word article on workplace violence and prevention measures for the hospital employee newsletter.

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:

•Competency 1: Explain the effect of health care policies, legislation, and legal issues on health care delivery and patient outcomes. ◦Identify the political, legal, and/or legislative factors that may contribute to violence in health care settings.

•Competency 2: Explain the effect of regulatory environments and controls on health care delivery and patient outcomes. ◦Identify the main components of OSHA’s workplace violence prevention guidelines.

◦Explain the American Nursing Association’s position on violence in the workplace.

◦Explain safety policies and protocols for preventing and responding to violence against health care workers.

•Competency 4: Communicate in a manner that is consistent with expectations of nursing professionals. ◦Write content clearly and logically, with correct use of grammar, punctuation, and mechanics.

◦Correctly format citations and references using APA style.

Context

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) (2002) defines workplace violence as any physical assault, threatening behavior, or verbal abuse occurring in the workplace. Violence includes overt and covert behaviors ranging in aggressiveness from verbal harassment to murder.

Specific to hospital workers, studies by the Institute for Occupational safety and Health (NIOSH) show that:

Violence often takes place during times of high activity and interaction with patients, such as at meal times and during visiting hours and patient transportation. Assaults may occur when service is denied, when a patient is involuntarily admitted, or when a health care worker attempts to set limits on eating, drinking, or tobacco or alcohol use. (2002, para. 4)

Reference

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. (2002). Violence: Occupational hazards in hospitals. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2002-101

Questions to Consider

To deepen your understanding, you are encouraged to consider the questions below and discuss them with a fellow learner, a work associate, an interested friend, or a member of your professional community.

•What are the more common reasons for workplace violence?

•What clinical risk factors can lead to workplace violence?

•What obligation does a health care facility have to protect workers from violence?

•What personal safety strategies do you have to protect yourself from violence at work?

Suggested Resources

The following optional resources are provided to support you in completing the assessment or to provide a helpful context. For additional resources, refer to the Research Resources and Supplemental Resources in the left navigation menu of your courseroom.

Library Resources

The following e-books or articles from the Capella University Library are linked directly in this course:

•Doby, V. (2015). Leadership’s role in eliminating workplace violence and changing perceptions in the emergency department. Journal of Emergency Nursing, 41(1), 7.

•Blando, J., Ridenour, M., Hartley, D., & Casteel, C. (2015). Barriers to effective implementation of programs for the prevention of workplace violence in hospitals. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 20(1), 1–11.

•Bruce, M. D., & Nowlin, W. A. (2011). Workplace violence: Awareness, prevention, and response. Public Personnel Management, 40(4), 293–308.

•Saltzberg, C. W., & Clark, C. M. (2015). A bold call to action: Mobilizing nurses and employers to prevent and address incivility, bullying, and workplace violence. (2015). American Nurse Today, 10(8), 1.

•Gillespie, G. L., Gates, D. M., Miller, M., & Howard, P. K. (2010). Workplace violence in healthcare settings: Risk factors and protective strategies. Rehabilitation Nursing, 35(5), 177–184.

•Magnavita, N. (2014). Workplace violence and occupational stress in healthcare workers: A chicken-and-egg situation-results of a 6-year follow-up study. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 46(5), 366–376.

•Speegle-Clark, K. (2013). Violence in the workplace: A prevention program for healthcare workers. (Doctoral dissertation). Available from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. (UMI No. 1539707).

•Papa, A., & Venella, J. (2013). Workplace violence in healthcare: Strategies for advocacy. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 18(1), 1.

Internet Resources

Access the following resources by clicking the links provided. Please note that URLs change frequently. Permissions for the following links have been either granted or deemed appropriate for educational use at the time of course publication.

•United States Department of Labor, Occupational Health & Safety Administration. (n.d.). Workplace violence. Retrieved from https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/healthcarefacilities/violence.html

•United States Department of Labor, Occupational Health and Safety Administration. (n.d.). Workplace violence prevention – Health care and social service workers. Retrieved from https://www.osha.gov/dte/library/wp-violence/healthcare/

•AACN. (n.d.). Position statement: Workplace violence prevention. Retrieved from http://www.aacn.org/WD/Practice/Docs/Workplace_Violence.pdf

•Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. (n.d.). Occupational violence. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/violence/training_nurses.html

•Liss, G. M. (2000). Violence in the health care workplace. CMAJ, 162(4). Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1231158/

Assessment Instructions

Your workplace has experienced some serious problems with workplace violence that occurred between patients and caregivers. A new initiative has been introduced to educate nurses, health care workers, and social services workers on how to prevent workplace violence. You have been asked to write an article on workplace violence and prevention measures for the hospital employee newsletter.

Preparation

Search the library and the Internet for scholarly and professional peer-reviewed articles on workplace violence. You will need at least five articles to use as support for your work on this assessment.

Directions

Write a 750–1,000-word article (3–4 pages) on workplace violence and prevention measures for the hospital employee newsletter. Address the following in your article:

•Identify the political, legal, and/or legislative factors that may contribute to violence in health care settings. Consider the types of patients that may be treated within a clinical or hospital setting.

•Compare OSHA regulations and the ANA position statement on workplace violence to organizational policies.

•Explain safety policies and protocols for preventing and responding to violence against health care workers.

Additional Requirements

Your presentation should meet the following requirements:

•Written communication: Written communication should be free of errors that detract from the overall message.

•References: Cite a minimum of five resources, with the majority being peer-reviewed sources. Your reference list should be appropriate to the body of literature available on this topic that has been published in the past 5 years.

•APA format: Resources and citations should be formatted according to current APA style and formatting.

•Length: 750– 1,000 words or 3–4 typed, double-spaced pages, excluding title page and reference page. Use Microsoft Word to complete the assessment.

•Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12-point.

How can an industrial hygienist determine how much risk is acceptable?

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Industrial Hygiene-

Discussion-

Risk perception is influenced by many factors. Reflect on your personal and professional life and share with the class an example of an experience that you have had that had a profound impact on your perception of risk. For example, consider someone who was seriously injured in an automobile accident and was not wearing a seat belt. As a result of that experience, that individual may now perceive the risk of injury caused by not wearing a seat belt as significantly higher than the rick involved when wearing a seatbelt. Consequently, this individual now wears a seat belt whenever driving a car to reduce the risk of injury to an acceptable level.

1) Define exposure assessment, and describe the seven steps involved in an exposure-assessment strategy. Apply each step to a scenario where you, as an industrial hygienist, are asked to describe a worker’s exposure to cadmium during a brazing operation. Your response should be at least 200 words in length.

2) What are the elements of the risk-assessment paradigm? How can these elements be applied in a workplace setting in which an emergency responder is addressing a large spill of trichloroethylene? Describe how risk assessment can be used in industrial hygiene practice. Your response should be at least 200 words in length.

3) In your own words, define risk. What are the four functions of risk? How can these four functions be used to make risk decisions? List the factors that affect risk perception in the workplace. How can an industrial hygienist determine how much risk is acceptable? Your response should be at least 200 words in length.

4) Define instantaneous monitoring, integrated monitoring, personal monitoring, and area monitoring, and explain the differences among each one. Provide a scenario in which in each method would be used. Your response should be at least 200 words in length.

5) Discuss methods that can help prevent musculoskeletal disorders in the workplace. Your response should be at least 200 words in length.

6) Describe how noise and vibration hazards can affect the human body. What are some methods for mitigating these hazards? Your response should be at least 200 words in length.

What are some possible implications of these differences for various stakeholders (e.g., nursing administration, patients, and community)? What does this mean for nursing’s role within each organization?

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Discussion: Characteristics of an Organization

Large…small…
Urban…rural…
For profit…non–profit…
Acute care…primary care
Teaching organization…research facility

Myriad characteristics influence the experiences of patients, nurses, and others in any health care setting. In addition to the factors noted above, the mission, vision, and values that guide an organization, as well as an institution’s commitments to patient care, teaching, and/or research, warrant significant consideration.

As a nurse leader–manager, it is helpful to look at all of these aspects, especially as they relate to strategic planning and the sustainability of the organization. To that end, for this Discussion you compare multiple aspects of two organizations and consider the implications for nursing. In addition, you will apply a Strategic Planning tool, such as SWOT or Balanced Scorecard, or Six Sigma principles to establish one realistic goal or objective consistent with the mission of the organization.

To Prepare

  • Review the information in the Learning Resources regarding strategic planning; types of organizations; organizational commitments to patient care, teaching, and/or research; and the mission, vision, and values of organizations.
  • Using the Internet, research various health care organizations (including those with which you are already familiar) that differ in focus, commitment, and mission, vision, and values. For the purposes of this Discussion, select two organizations with significant differences.
  • Compare information about the two organizations. Based on the information presented in the Learning Resources, how do they differ?
  • What are some possible implications of these differences for various stakeholders (e.g., nursing administration, patients, and community)? What does this mean for nursing’s role within each organization?
  • Identify a goal or objective based on a strategic planning tool, such as SWOT or Balanced Scorecard, or Six Sigma consistent with the mission of the organization.
By Day 3

Post and Contrast two differing health care organization’s mission, vision, and values, and describe at least two potential implications of these distinctions for stakeholders of each organization. Explain how this informs the focus for nursing, noting the role that nursing administration plays in supporting and fulfilling the mission, vision, and values, and organizational strategies. Write a goal or objective, based on a strategic planning tool, such as SWOT, Balanced Scorecard, or Six Sigma consistent with the mission of one of the organizations.

Read a selection of your colleagues’ responses.

By Day 6

Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days using one or more of the following approaches:

  • Ask a probing question, substantiated with additional background information and evidence.
  • Share an insight from having read your colleagues’ postings, synthesizing the information to provide new perspectives.
  • Validate an idea with your own experience and additional sources.
  • Make a suggestion based on additional evidence drawn from readings or after synthesizing multiple postings

how are culture and climate manifested within the organization?

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Discussion: Organizational Foundations

As you strive to grow in your leadership skills and abilities, you will find that the context in which you work influences your motivation and areas of focus. In a similar vein, your commitment to developing professionally can contribute toward organizational effectiveness.
To that end, it is critical to recognize the importance of organizational culture and climate. In particular, through this week’s Learning Resources, you may consider several questions: How do an organization’s mission, vision, and values relate to its culture? What is the difference between culture and climate? Moreover, how are culture and climate manifested within the organization?
For this Discussion, you explore the culture and climate of your current organization or one with which you are familiar. You also consider decisions and day-to-day practices and the way they relate to the organization’s mission, vision, and values.
To prepare:
  • Review the information related to planning and decision making in health care organizations presented in the textbook, Leadership Roles and Management Functions in Nursing: Theory and Application. Consider how planning and decision making relate to an organization’s mission, vision, and values, as well as its culture and its climate.
  • Familiarize yourself with the mission, vision, and values of your organization or one with which you are familiar. Consider how the statements and actions of leaders and others within the organization support or demonstrate the organizational mission, vision, and values. In addition, note any apparent discrepancies between word and deed. Think about how this translates into expectations for direct service providers. Note any data or artifacts that seem to indicate whether behaviors within the organization are congruent with its mission, vision, and values.
  • Begin to examine and reflect on the culture and climate of the organization. How do culture and climate differ?
  • Why is it important for you, as a master’s-prepared nurse leader, to be cognizant of these matters?
By Day 3
Post a description of your selected organization’s mission, vision, and values. Describe relevant data, or artifacts, words, and actions of leaders and others in the organization that support, or perhaps appear to contradict the organization’s mission, vision, and values statement. In addition, discuss the organization’s culture and its climate, differentiating between the two. Explain why examining these matters is significant to your role as a nurse leader.
At http://www.sclhealthsystem.org-/ this is where I work.  below is their mission vision, etc.
Mission, Vision & Values
Mission

We reveal and foster God’s healing love by improving the health of the people and communities we serve, especially those who are poor and vulnerable.

Vision

Inspired by our faith,
  • We will be distinguished as the premier person-centered health system and trusted partner.
  • We will engage patients in their care decisions and share accountability with clinicians and other stakeholders to coordinate care across all settings and improve access, quality, health outcomes and affordability.
  • We will grow as community-based health networks in partnership with others who share our vision and values and align with us to be an essential provider to those we serve.
Values
Caring Spirit – We honor the sacred dignity of each person.
Excellence – We set and surpass high standards.
Good Humor – We create joyful and welcoming environments.
Integrity – We do the right thing with openness and pride.
Safety – We deliver care that seeks to eliminate all harm for patients and associates.
Stewardship – We are accountable for the resources entrusted to us.