OSHA concluded that healthcare and social service workers are almost "four times as likely to be injured as a result of violence than the average private sector worker." To bring a reduction to this risk, OSHA has just released an update to its Guidelines for Preventing Workplace Violence for Healthcare and Social Service Workers. The Guidelines include what OSHA believes to be "industry best practices," and provides direction on ways to reduce the risk of violence in various healthcare and social service settings.
These revised Guidelines, that update and broaden the reach of OSHA's previous 1996 and 2004 Guidelines, incorporate "research in the last decade into the causes of workplace violence on healthcare and social service settings, risk factors that accompany working with patients or clients who display violent behavior, and the appropriate preventive measures that can be taken, amid the variety of settings in which health care and social service employees work."
Importantly for employers in these industries is that the Guidelines also stress the importance of developing a written workplace violence prevention program. The Guidelines require that a workplace program should include management commitment and employee participation, worksite analysis, hazard prevention and control, safety and health training, and recordkeeping and program evaluation.
Please continue reading from: Brent I. Clark, James L. Curtis, Mark A. Lies, Meagan Newman, and Craig B. Simonsen