subject: Workplace Violence Training - Protecting In-home Medical Caregivers From Violence On The Job! [print this page] Are you an administrator or supervisor concerned about workplace violence touching your in-home nurses or other medical professionals? I can certainly understand why you would be.
Contrary to media and news reports, workplace violence attacks do not always involve one-on-one employee violence - where an aggressive employee is attacking a co-worker or manager.
Also, the belief that an attack must occur on company grounds for it to be considered workplace violence is another unfortunate misconception that is putting many employees at-risk!
Put these 2 false-beliefs together and we find that there is a group of workers who, not only go without the necessary training to be protected against violence on the job, but...they aren't even counted on in the statistics of many reports for workplace violence at all!
The reality is that, in today's world, many employees have a workplace outside of their company's walls. They have no set office, flexible hours, and work in a variety of conditions and environments - all in the same day!
And, they are attacked, beaten, raped, robbed, and even murdered by the very people they are there to help!
I'm talking about in-home nurses and other medical care-givers.
In fact, visiting nurses, paramedics and ambulance personnel, and in-home caregivers are among those employees who most-often encounter violence on the job! And, if you can see how these professionals are not always attacked by the criminal assailant, but very often by normal patients who are reacting to pain, grief, the effects of drugs and alcohol, and even dementia and other psychological disorders, and you quickly see that they have a very different problem than the average employee working in a closed environment.
In fact, the medical profession ranks third, among all non-law enforcement, security, and military occupations for the shear number of attacks that occur every year! Based on these statistics, it is vitally important that your company get the type of self defense training that will protect the in-home medical professional from falling victim and suffering from a workplace violence attack!
According to workers and professionals in the medical field, assaults occurring in the in-home care environment are very different in many ways from even the same attacks that occur within a hospital setting.
Some of the concerns and differences that your company's workplace violence training program should address for this group of employees include:
The fact that your worker is usually alone with their assailant - and sometimes other family members!
The client is often confused or agitated by other events unknown to the caregiver
The neighborhood in which your professional may be required to operate may pose dangers even if the threat does not come from the client
An adverse reaction to newly prescribed medications may not yet be documented
...and even a client's prejudices or sensitivities to gender, race, age, or any other personality factor may be enough to trigger a negative reaction and spur violence!
It's important to remember that, especially in these difficult times, violence in the workplace is not just something that occurs "now and again." Workplace violence is an everyday problem.
With 17 to 20 employees being murdered every week on the job, and another 1,500 people a week being beaten, raped, robbed, or otherwise assaulted, the likelihood of one of your medical professionals being attacked on the job is not a possibility - it's a given!
Regardless of the "workplace," whether it be a hospital, clinic, ambulance, office, or even a customer's home...
...employees - including in-home medical caregivers - should be trained in at least basic attack avoidance, assault evasion, escape, and self defense strategies which would arm them with the tools to de-escalate, escape from, or defend against an attack!
