Author: Christie Lech, MD (Assistant Program Director, NYU)

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Task Force Agenda:

I)    Development of peer support group for those who experience workplace violence (WPV)

• Will share resources for creation of peer support networks at hospital sites (available for interdisciplinary staff)

II)   Development of debriefing protocols for staff to use after WPV incident

• Define specific triggers for debriefing
• Use a model that could capitalize on role modeling (faculty leading debriefs) and peer to peer learning (senior residents leading for junior residents, junior residents for medical students)

III) Development of a curriculum around WPV, consisting of defining/identifying WPV, de-escalation techniques, identifying risk factors for WPV, etc.

• Share materials to make an unified national curriculum for all EM residents, and other ED staff

IV) Development of a reporting system, policies and support for incidences of discrimination-based WPV (i.e. gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion-based discrimination)

• Share resources about frameworks to guide discussions during and after these events

V)   Collect data from hospital sites to lobby for litigation to protect trainees and other staff against WPV

• Present data for ACEP resolutions for the ACEP council
• Ask ACEP to investigate the impact of WPV and support legislation related to it

 

New Ideas:

I) Create reporting system that can be used across sites, may also start with inquiry (survey or qualitative – interview/focus group) about why people are not reporting incidents of WPV and target these issues

II) Other ideas for components of curriculum: online modules, Project BETA

III) Set meetings between EM staff, ED security (security/police) +/- psychiatry, +/- local police precinct to devise plan of action

IV) Consider creation of a CORD eGuide/toolbox to encapsulate all of the above

V) Devise survey that considers the role of context, having to care for victims of WPV (our colleagues), and is not limited to academic settings to describe WPV in these environments and enhance generalizability of results.

 

VI) Design EMR order set for WPV (e.g. agitated patient)