HiTara, I enjoyed reading your DNP project. It is a very interesting topic to me. I have been working in behavioral health services (BHS) for the past 21years and I had experienced workplace violence (WPV) first hand both ininpatient settings and in psychiatric emergency rooms. Healthcare workers are expectedto be 4 times more likely open to workplace violence 4times more than non-healthcare settings (OSHA, 2015). Organizations’ commitment and staffs’participation are crucial elements of an effective WPV prevention program(OSHA, 2015).

  Regulatory agencies expectemployers to assess their employees’ work environment for the risk factors theyare actually or potentially exposed to.  Although agitated and violentclients can be found throughout healthcare settings, BHS is expected to dealwith those types of clients on a daily basis. As an Officeof Mental Health (OMH) operated facility, our hospital uses the annualtraining program Preventing and Managing Crisis Situations (PMCS) to providespecific skills for preventing, de-escalating and managing aggressive behaviorin BHS.  It is compulsory for all directcare staff of BHS to attend this initial two-day program, and an annual one-dayprogram training successively. We also have color-coded panic buttons (fordifferent crisis including medical emergencies) in our search rooms, triagerooms and nurses stations.

  Our hospitalis in the process of expanding PMCS program to the medical emergency room staffincluding the hospital police.  PMCS,which provides essentials of trauma-informed and recovery-oriented care, hasproven to be a successful tool in enhancing the safety of both staff andrecipients in an emergency situation, with the main focus on prevention throughthe development of staff competencies in day-to-day effective interactions(OMH, 2001).