Workplace Violence PD

Protecting our Caregivers:
Comprehensive Strategies for Eliminating Workplace Violence

July 26, 2023 | 1:00 - 2:30 PM ET
Virtual Policy Dialogue Hosted by the Psychiatric, Mental Health, and Substance Use Expert Panel in collaboration with the Trauma and Violence and Military and Veterans Health Expert Panels


Purpose Statement:

Violence in the healthcare field is a pervasive and underreported problem worldwide. The pandemic has highlighted its greater prevalence in the nursing workplace. The frequency and severity of assaults against health care workers have been increasing and require immediate attention and direction for action. This policy dialogue will explore federal legislation regarding workplace violence and share best practices. This dialogue will also set nursing actions toward the future steps to improve the safety and well-being of health care environments and for the future.

Learning Outcomes:

As a result of participating in this policy dialogue, learners will:

  1. Discuss the current state of workplace violence in various healthcare settings and how such violence contributes to poor outcomes for nurses and patients;
  2. Review current/proposed federal policy regarding healthcare workplace violence prevention and recommendations for future policy initiatives; and
  3. Determine actionable steps individual nurses can take to have an organizational impact on safety and well-being.

Speaker Suggested Resources

Featured Speakers

Emily Champlin, JD, Emily Champlin is a Senior Policy Advisor in the American Nurses Association’s Policy & Government Affairs department. She has been working in the health policy field for a decade to increase access to high quality health care and improve federal health programs. She currently focuses on making workplaces safer for nurses and creating health programs that truly value nursing care. Emily received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California Santa Cruz and a law degree from Golden Gate University School of Law.

Lynda Enos, RN, BSN, MS, COHN-C, CPE, Ergonomist/Human Factors Specialist, HumanFit, LLC, is a certified occupational health nurse and certified professional ergonomist with over 30 years of work and consulting experience in industrial and health care ergonomics and safety with over 200 companies nationwide. She holds an undergraduate degree in nursing and a graduate degree in human factors/ergonomics from the University of Idaho.

Work experience includes consultation in safe patient handling and mobility (SPHM) and ergonomics for over 40 hospital systems, clinics, assisted living facilities, and home health and hospice services. Assistance includes development, facilitation, and evaluation of SPHM programs for several years per facility. In 2017, Ms. Enos completed a 2-year project for the Oregon Association for Hospitals and Health Systems (OAHHS) that included helping 5 hospitals in Oregon to review their existing workplace violence prevention (WPV) programs and develop comprehensive program plans to address WPV.

Using lessons learned from this project and an extensive review of violence prevention literature, Ms. Enos developed a comprehensive toolkit for prevention violence in healthcare. The “Oregon Workplace Safety Initiative Workplace Violence in Healthcare: A Toolkit for Prevention and Management” was published in December 2017 and extensively updated in March 2020. The toolkit is available at https://www.oahhs.org/safety.

Ms. Enos has since worked with several state-based hospital associations to conduct in-person and virtual WPV prevention workshops that are based on the Oregon WPV toolkit, for numerous healthcare organizations. In 2019, Ms. Enos assisted the Oregon State Stabilization and Crisis Unit (SACU) to further develop their WPV prevention program for 23 group homes for adults and children. Ms. Enos is a subject matter expert for several regulatory and research entities including, the American Nurses Association, the International Standards Organization, and the Joint Commission.
Scott Hutton, PhD, RN, MBA, FAAN, FACHE, is the Director of Operations, Workplace Violence Prevention Program (WVPP) in Veterans Health Administration’s Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention and is PhD prepared nurse with a specialty in occupational health. As the Director of Operations, he manages complex elements of several workplace violence prevention program initiatives, including the world’s largest disruptive behavior reporting system. This system has been the infrastructure for the VHA policy on Workplace Violence Prevention which is recognized as the best practice across healthcare and by regulatory bodies including The Joint Commission. 

Nursing Continuing Professional Development
The American Academy of Nursing (Academy) hosts virtual policy dialogues to discuss leading topics related to the organization's policy priorities. Registration is open to Academy Fellows at no additional cost, students at $25, and non-members at $80. Each dialogue will be 90 minutes, and 1.5 nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) contact hours will be available for purchase at $25 in the registration portal.

The American Academy of Nursing is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. There are no relevant financial relationships identified for any individual in a position to control the content of this activity.