Workplace Violence Prevention and Management Program

Workplace Violence Prevention and Management Program Recent events in Hawaii have made both employers and employees more aware of workplace violence and they are getting more concerned regarding their personal safety.
The Xerox shooting and the Sheraton stabbing are good examples of such violent episodes. Both incidences exhibited prior evidence of violence in the workplace; and if proper intervention by management was initiated, these tragedies could have been prevented. Therefore, employers need a good workplace violence program to protect their employees as well as their customers. Tripler Army Medical Center is implementing such a workplace violence program. The purpose of the program is to protect the hospital 's employees, patients, visitors and volunteers from workplace violence. Violence, as defined in the program, is unwanted or hostile physical contact, threat or harassment that may occur between or among employees, patients, volunteers or visitors. Tripler knows that no employer is immune from workplace violence; however, the hospital is committed to promoting a work environment free from violence, threat of violence, harassments, intimidation and other disruptive behavior. The main focus of the program is to identify potential violent incidents and to use early intervention to prevent such from occurring. The program must train its staff to look for warning signs of trouble, identify the problem, and diffuse the potential violent situation. The Social
Work Service Department has been given the task of designing this program, and the Safety Office has been given the task of implementing and will be the proponent of the program. The initial training of the employees of the hospital is to train the trainer. In other words, the Social Work Department will train all supervisors that work for the hospital on prevention of workplace violence. The training consists of trainer sessions, videos, and power point presentations. All