UC medical centers are renowned for excellent patient care. We know that also includes providing a safe, secure environment — for both patients and employees. We work hard to ensure our medical centers are supportive and healthy workplaces, dedicated to care and healing.
Our commitment to safety
- We provide training to nurses and other hospital staff to help them handle challenging and potentially harmful situations. This training includes how to recognize a potentially aggressive patient or situation, techniques to de-escalate the situation, physical techniques to defuse and prevent the behavior, and strategies to avoid physical harm.
- UC’s workplace violence prevention policies are designed to ensure the well being of our staff and patients. These policies detail specific measures for preventing violence, and procedures for responding to such incidents.
- Every UC medical center has security personnel, who are trained in crisis intervention by certified instructors, or police officers to respond to potentially violent situations.
- Each medical center has a workplace violence prevention administrator who actively works to prevent and respond to workplace safety incidents.
- Additional security measures recently implemented at some UC medical centers include:
- increased security staffing
- close coordination with campus police to respond to incidents
- metal detectors at hospital entrances
- Each medical center has a workplace violence prevention committee, which includes a nurse representative, as well as established protocols to help ensure staffing issues are discussed in a timely manner with CNA, and proactively addressed in ways that are appropriate to each unique hospital environment.
New state regulations
New Cal/OSHA regulations will require all California health care facilities to have a written workplace violence prevention plan by April 1, 2018. UC’s plans will ensure:
- All nurses and other hospital staff receive workplace safety training that meets state regulatory requirements.
- All nurses and other hospital staff will receive “refresher” training every year. UC has voluntarily and proactively added this requirement for all employees — exceeding the state mandate that requires it for only certain employees.
- Security personnel and other designated responders will receive additional hands-on training on safety measures and intervention strategies that meet state requirements.
- UC offers additional voluntary training, which nurses can take using their professional and educational development time.