With the recent news of several nurses in a Minnesota hospital being injured by a patient wielding a metal bar, the issue of healthcare workers facing violence in the workplace is again receiving media scrutiny.

Hospitalized individuals are certainly under significant stress when facing recovery and treatment from acute illnesses or injuries, and intense emotions may often be at play.

Those employed in emergency departments understand they are particularly subject to the emotional volatility of patients who may face long waits in particularly busy facilities. However, the recent events in Minnesota demonstrate that a normal medical-surgical unit is not immune from such violence.

Moreover, we must realize that patients' families and friends are potential sources of anger or violence, especially in situations where emotions are running high. We have heard stories of injured gang members being attacked by rival gang members while resting in their hospital beds, thus facility staff can potentially be exposed to many sources of violence or aberrant behavior.

Prevention is key

While some hospitals and organizations may take notice of the need to increase employee safety following an unfortunate event such as the one that occurred in Minnesota, it is prudent to preemptively implement such crucial programs as part of a conscientious strategy of prevention.

When an injury to a healthcare worker occurs, the media, the public and healthcare workers themselves will understandably begin to ask questions, probing for the causes of such incidents. There is great value in the hindsight provided by this close examination, and professional debriefing following this type of occurrence is paramount.

However, healthcare facilities should not sit back, waiting idly for an employee to be injured, before creating programs to decrease workplace violence. Healthcare employees are indeed the human platform upon which the delivery of medical services is ultimately reliant, thus it behooves healthcare facilities to ensure employees' safety to the greatest extent possible.

From skills in de-escalation, conflict resolution and the reading of body language, to policies regarding the care of potentially volatile patients, hospitals and healthcare organizations are beholden to provide training and support that increase the likelihood of employees (and patients) remaining safe at all times.

Multidisciplinary involvement

Within a large hospital, one will find employees who work in nursing, medicine, food service, housekeeping, case management, environmental services and a plethora of other positions, all with a vast array of responsibilities. While nurses and other direct care staff may have the greatest level of interactivity with patients, anyone employed by the facility is still at risk and also a potential source of solutions.

If a facility is considering ways in which to implement programs targeting violence prevention and incidence response, a multidisciplinary approach is of critical importance.

While "multidisciplinary" may often be perceived as involving a cross-section of clinical disciplines, it is important for facilities to recognize the need for the involvement of housekeeping, maintenance, environmental services, volunteers, support staff and other employees who may encounter unpredictable or dangerous situations.

A properly-trained housekeeper or volunteer could play as equally significant a role as a nurse or doctor in identifying a situation that may lead to aggressive behavior. The cost of such training may appear prohibitive to an institution with hundreds or thousands of employees, but the cost of litigation, worker's compensation, attrition and absenteeism due to injury or fear are much more costly when taking the 10,000-foot view.

A worthy and ongoing issue

The potential for aggression or violence in a service industry like healthcare is a reality upon which we can all agree.

While high-profile situations like the one in Minnesota will briefly focus the attention of the media and the public, the societal attention span is short. Thus, it is up to healthcare facilities to maintain the focus on worker safety 365 days per year.

Meanwhile, it is also the responsibility and duty of healthcare employees to hold their employers' feet to the fire, using measures of accountability to ensure ongoing attention to worker safety. Unions, professional groups and other employee organizations can all be involved in stepping up the pressure for effective measures to be implemented, maintained, evaluated and improved.

We hope that the injured nurses in Minnesota recover quickly and completely from their injuries, and we hope that the lessons learned from this incident are universally applied across the country and around the world.

Just like patient injuries, there should be no tolerance for staff injuries and workplace violence, and it is our individual and collective responsibility to prevent it, as well as to understand how to properly respond when violence pays a visit.