The American Hospital Association partnered with the Federal Bureau of Investigations to offer resources to mitigate violence directed toward health care workers.
The new resources come amid a reported rise in violence facing the industry.
The AHA has launched the Hospitals Against Violence initiative, which is intended at stop both workplace and community violence in health care settings. Organization leaders say violence at health care facilities has been on the rise since the pandemic.
“Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, health care workers across the nation have experienced a sharp increase in incidences of workplace violence, with no sign that this trend is receding,” the AHA said. “Despite the diligent efforts of hospitals and health systems to prevent violence, health care workers remain five times more likely than any other type of worker to be physically attacked on the job, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.”
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John Riggi, who handles cybersecurity for the AHA, said there are 13.2 physical assaults per 100 nurses per year. There are also 38.8 per 100 nurses per year of nonphysical violent events such as threats, sexual harassment and verbal abuse.
One major key officials say could prevent attacks is assessing threats before violence acts happen.
“When we're in this space, our main mission is to prevent those acts of terrorism and targeted violence. And so one of the biggest tools that we have to do that is what's known as threat assessment management. And some people have heard of that and others haven't,” said Karie Gibson, unit chief for the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit-1.
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Gibson suggested that it’s not just on law enforcement to prevent violence at hospitals.
“I think any place out there that has the ability to have large numbers of people there or more of a public space where people can enter at their own will, we're all vulnerable in those environments,” Gibson said. “And I think that if we go about thinking that we're immune from that violence, then we're just setting ourselves up to be even that much more vulnerable.
“So the best option is for all of us as community members to come together and do what we can in our own spaces to protect them as well as educate individuals that are within that space and what to look for and what to do when they see something concerning and being able to work with our partners to really enhance that.”
