Every Nurse Should Feel Safe and Staff Protection Can’t Wait
By: Kara Schwobe, BSN, RN, ANLC-N
As a NICU nurse for many decades, I have seen the best days, and the most heartbreaking moments of a stranger’s life. Those strangers are people – parents, in a high stress environment with their entire world lying in a NICU bed, wrapped in wires. IV’s protruding from their sweet little arms and legs. Ventilators ensuring those tiny lungs take adequate breaths. Throw in the sympathy of alarms from every machine in that room and your humanly senses are overstimulated, not to mention sleep deprived and filled with fear. Those strangers no longer are so distant and truly transform into family as they become part of the unique heart that the NICU is. I have sat through countless de-escalation training sessions and always felt I would be prepared. Que the threatening situation, high emotional environment, and fight or flight kicks in. Those de-escalation scenarios don’t seem to quite play out as you thought they would. You start to rationalize the behavior, justify the situation, try to put yourself in their shoes, and calculate the accumulated stress this person must be under. Nursing school does not prepare you to de-escalate threatening situations because after all, we are caregivers, it is in our nature to care, and then to fix.
That is where Securitas Healthcare steps into our fragile world. Providing tools and keeping sight on staff protection and what it should be. The latest white paper, Evaluating Your Hospital’s Staff Protection, offers structure to safety and security.
Let’s break down some key insights and open the conversation to safety.
1. It’s Not Enough to Detect Threats – Prevention and Real Time Response Matters
Yes, there is a level of comfort knowing CCTV, visitor screening, and public access control points are highly valued in healthcare. Risk can be evaluated, traced, and at times stopped from the first access point. These tools offer peace of mind but do not offer violence protection. The white paper points out that frontline staff in high-risk units need faster ways to de-escalate situations or call for help.
Wearable panic buttons on all staff badges offer discreet way to alert for help. Partnered with a Real-Time Location System platform that provides frontline staff, security, and leadership critical information to deploy help as quickly as possible, who called, where they are, and who is responding reduces delays and confusion.
2. Better Reporting = Better Improvement
Document, document, document. In nursing school, it is drilled into every student that if it is not documented, it didn’t happen. When a behavior concern arises, without failure, the million-dollar question becomes “did you document it?” And not just once, but the pattern of behavior needs to be documented. Add this narrative to your care plan documentation, flowsheets, education, and beyond. In my experience, the majority of violence takes shape as verbal insults, passive aggressive comments, and unacceptable language.
The white paper shows that many verbal, near misses, and threats go unreported because staff just “expect it” or don’t think reporting it will make a difference. When incidents are responded to, staff begin to feel safer and more valued. If staff could discreetly report duress calls and those incidents are automatically logged, and responded too, patterns begin to surface, and safety is maintained. Leaders maintain a broad view of their units, monitor trends, and identify hot spots.
3. Integrate Protection Technology into What You Already Have
Most hospitals have extensive security infrastructure already and we need to ask ourselves how new technology can strengthen and fill in the safety gaps that are out there. The white paper offers integrated ideas to better service and protect our staff. When we integrate a badge-panic button, each employee has a direct connection to a reliable safety response. Pairing current technology with the intelligence to identify location, patterns, and threats means having the security staff in place to quickly respond and intervene.
Let’s face it, leaders are often summoned to rooms when situations have already gone sideways. Rarely am I requested because a family wants to gush over the extent of their positive patient experience. Now, in fairness, this does happen on occasion, and it is the highlight of my job. It is wishful thinking to believe that is what my days are filled with, and the reality is those experiences are few and far between. More times than not, the conversation is taking place due to situations that have completely spiraled and in hindsight, maybe could have been prevented. This is why prevention and early detection matter. Giving staff tools to identify threats can help bridge gaps between frontline staff, security, and leadership. Staff deserve to be safe at work and feel confident that threating or abusive behavior will not be tolerated.
Call to Action
The white paper, Evaluating Your Hospital’s Staff Protection, offers insight to today’s technology in safety. No solution will eliminate risk, after all, human behavior is unpredictable and complex. As nurse leaders, we are responsible to start the conversation about solutions and build a culture of safety for everyone. When staff are protected, they are supported. And when they are supported, they can focus on what they do best, care for the most fragile populations.
Download the white paper. Start the hard conversations. Because safety is a culture, and it begins with us.
Learn more about Securitas Healthcare
The material presented in this blog represents the opinion of the author(s) and not necessarily the views of Synova Associates. Synova Associates does not endorse any specific products or organizations but strives to connect its industry partners with leaders interested in product/educational innovation.
