Hospital workers are especially vulnerable to violent behaviors, according to Ann Scott Blouin, RN, PhD, the Joint Commission’s executive vice president of customer relations.

“It stands to reason. After all, especially for nurses or physicians, we’re the ones sometimes delivering upsetting news to patients and families,” she wrote in a blog post. “For nurses like myself, it’s a sad fact that violence has unfortunately become more common.”

Creating a prevention strategy which makes sense for your facility requires several steps. Some are less formal ways to minimize risks, like avoiding leaving workers alone in isolated areas, like in interventional radiology. Others require some top-down strategizing, like conducting a hospital-wide risk assessment.

“While these steps sound simplistic, they save lives. I can recall a hospital that experienced a tragedy because the security team didn’t know how to get to the location where the victim needed help,” Blouin wrote.

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