For years, healthcare workers around the world have accepted an occasional violent attack and verbal assault from patients as an occupational hazard – just an unpleasant fact of life that was accepted as part of the job.
But that perception is changing, and JPS Health Network is working hard to find ways to protect healthcare workers from attacks coming from the people they’re trying to help.
“It’s not just happening at JPS or in Fort Worth, it’s happening everywhere, across the country and around the world,” said Mary Ann Contreras, Violence and Injury Prevention Manager for the health network. “There are a lot of reasons for it. Hospitals are high stress areas to begin with. But then there are often patients affected mentally by illness, trauma or drugs. It’s a situation where things can get out of control quickly.”
According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, healthcare providers are about four times more likely than the average American worker to be assaulted while on the job.
The healthcare industry accounts for almost as many serious injuries from violent attacks – incidents that require workers to take time off from their jobs to recover – than all other American industries combined, according to OSHA. About 11 percent of injuries suffered by workers in a healthcare setting come from physical attacks compared to 3 percent in other industries.
JPS has formed a Workplace Violence Taskforce to try to protect its team members. Its leaders also invited Janice Harris Lord, an expert on trauma therapy and a member of the Victims Committee of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, to speak about the subject during the health network’s monthly Trauma Circle gatherings.
“Workplace violence in the healthcare industry is not a new thing,” said Lord, who in 1993 received the U.S. Presidential Award for “Outstanding Service on Behalf of Victims of Crime” from President Bill Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno. “It’s been around a long time and it probably will continue to escalate. Throughout the world, we’ve seen an increase in incidents of violence in healthcare settings. I think it is amazing that JPS is doing these things to protect its workers.”
Chaplain Lee Ann Franklin, director of Spiritual Care and Ethics at JPS, said it is her goal -- and that of the Workplace Violence Taskforce -- to see attacks on healthcare workers become a thing of the past. Doctors, nurses and techs should be able to come to work every day knowing they’re not going to be injured or abused.
Sadly, Lord said such a lofty goal may be unreachable. While even one attack is one too many, she said healthcare workers can’t simply try to prevent violence. They also need to work on how to recover both physically and mentally after finding themselves on the receiving end of a fist or a barrage of profanity and insults.
“I love the optimism and the attitude,” Lord said. “I think that’s the attitude you have to have. But I don’t see workplace violence incidents being reduced to zero. What we can do is have zero tolerance for workplace violence.”
Lord plans to speak to JPS team members at the September, October and November editions of the Trauma Circle. Her September appearance was about teaching team members how to recover from verbal and physical assaults.
“Violent attacks can be devastating and hard to get past,” Lord said. “So let’s train our staff here to be able to calm themselves and bring back their most resilient self after an incident. It can be tough to bounce back after being spat upon, shouted at or even hit. We need to support each other to bring us back from things like that.”
Team members need to be prepared to calm each other and provide reassurance necessary to get back into a productive state of mind, according to Lord.
“I always tell people ‘don’t should yourself,’” Lord said. “It’s easy to think that you should have done this or that you should have done that to prevent things from getting out of control. But it’s not their fault. It’s important to remember that sometimes there is nothing that can be done to prevent these sorts of things.”
In October, Lord plans to speak on the subject of de-escalating hostile patients. Her November plans are still being finalized. Franklin said JPS leaders and team members are fortunate to get valuable advice from one of the foremost experts of workplace violence.
“Janice Harris Lord gives us evidence-based tools to build our resilience in the face of whatever crisis comes our way,” Franklin said. “She gives us tools to not only de-escalate situations, but also to de-escalate ourselves in situations that include potential or actual violence. We may not be able to control our environment, but with Janice’s training, we can better control our responses to all kinds of situations.”