The National Quality Forum’s (NQF) National Quality Partners™ (NQP) Action Team to Prevent Healthcare Workplace Violence recently held its capstone webinar to present its Issue Brief to highlight strategies and solutions to prevent and mitigate workplace violence within health care settings. GNYHA Vice President of Professional and Regulatory Affairs Jenna Mandel-Ricci served as a member of the Action Team. GNYHA encourages the many member institutions already working to address workplace violence and related issues to review the Issue Brief for further ideas.
The NQF formed the NQP Action Team in October to explore workplace violence prevention and mitigation strategies by bringing together experts and recognized leaders from the private and public sectors. A series of web meetings and an in-person forum helped the NQP Action Team develop priorities, goals, and promising practices to inspire action in others.
To develop its Issue Brief, the NQP Action Team identified key challenges that health care workplace stakeholders need to address. These included the limited integration between the patient safety and worker safety culture; inconsistent definitions and standards; limited reporting and data collection infrastructure; lack of understanding or awareness; competing priorities; insufficient funding and research; and limited mechanisms to support accountability. The Issue Brief highlights the need for standardized definitions and data collection and abilities to analyze and share data, invest in safety, and collaborate and scale efforts to prevent workplace violence.
GNYHA was one of 28 representatives from health care institutions and organizations across the US that participated in the NQP Action Team. GNYHA shared information gleaned from a 2019 learning series on workplace violence prevention and mitigation strategies and approaches with the Action Team. The learning series explored a diverse set of topics, including incident reporting systems, training approaches and strategies, unit-based approaches to violence reduction, and active shooter response in the health care environment.