Hostage-takers in health care settings

No security staff is large enough to provide a safe working environment for health care personnel without the cooperation of the entire staff. Staff members must be able to recognize early in an incident when things are beginning to get out of hand so they can implement appropriate strategies to defuse the situation or call for assistance. The challenge of facing violent incidents in the health care setting will continue to grow. Hostage incidents provide the opportunity for the powerless to be heard. Incidents occur daily. No place is safe. New issues such as abortion, genetic research, and animal research along with the old issues of estrangement, insensitivity to human emotional pain, and vulnerability will ensure that violence in the medical care setting continues. Avoiding the issue will not cause it to go away and can be costly to your facility in terms of money and morale. The key to maintaining the safe environment health care workers have a right to expect lies in planning, training, and commitment. Disturbing trends in which upper level management demands that staff not document recommendations for procedures for handling violence open a pandora's box of negligence issues, not to mention professional ethics. I hope we can confront these problems in a cooperative and open manner without recrimination and fear. Failing to address them will not provide safety or long-term gain.