Bringing the abusive employee back

In many health care settings, some dispute resolution process exists which limits the discretion of the employer to simply terminate an employee suspected of inappropriate or abusive behavior. On occasion, the working of such disciplinary processes results in an employee, who is viewed by management as having broken a fundamental trust, being returned to the workplace. In managing the return of these individuals, provider agencies must develop strategies to reduce the likelihood of any future client injury and to increase the chances of returning the employee to a productive functioning level. We surveyed employees returned to work after an abusive incident along with their supervisors to determine what specific supports each group saw as necessary for a successful return. As a result, an individualized, structured program was developed to deal with such returns and piloted. The authors' results indicate that the program might serve as one possible model for wider use.