A 2017 study identified that approximately 98% of all healthcare workers had been verbally abused by patients with 82% of those indicating that they were psychologically affected by these encounters.
Arming your staff with the best tools to de-escalate situations and reduce harm to themselves is paramount.
These skills may also help reduce the overburdening of other clinical and non-clinical staff from lost man-hours. This course will provide members of your healthcare facility with the knowledge and skills they need to de-escalate incidents of verbal abuse from patients.
Benefits
- Understanding of how the legal system and healthcare legislation are designed to support you.
- Understanding and applying conflict resolution principles with verbally aggressive patients.
- Having the skills to de-escalate and negotiate with aggressive patients over the phone.
- Knowing how and what to include in an incident report and how this helps improve security.
- Being aware of the importance and benefits of participating in security training.
Pre Requisites
None
Who Should Attend
- Health Service Providers
- Doctors and Nurses
- Health Service Security Staff
- Non-clinical Reception/Triage Area Staff
- Volunteers and Contractors
Course Outline
Participants will be guided through the following topic areas:
- Introduction to the Australian Legal System – knowing your rights and responsibilities when dealing with an aggressive patient.
- State and Federal Legislation – Understanding the legislation that governs and protects you and your staff when dealing with incidents of patient aggression.
- Basic Principles of Conflict Resolution – Understanding the concepts associated with resolving conflict with an individual who may be affected by drugs/alcohol or is a mental health patient.
- Building Rapport Quickly – Awareness of techniques that can help you to build rapport quickly with patients to reduce the likelihood of verbal aggression.
- Creating Empathy – Introducing strategies that can be used to prevent or de-escalate incidents of patient aggression through a shared understanding of problems.
- Phone-Based Negotiation Behaviours – Understanding the behaviours and traits to be aware of from both the aggressor and yourself when negotiating over the phone.
- De-escalation and Communication – Knowledge of the best practice procedure for de-escalating verbal aggression and communicating on the phone or face-to-face.
- Practical Application – Applying skills through scenario-based training to create competence and confidence amongst staff at all levels.
- Annual Security Awareness Training – Understanding the importance of security training as a frontline staff member and knowing how it will assist in reducing the chance of verbal aggression.
- Incident Reporting – Understanding what information is relevant when writing incident reports and how this supports and drives the security strategies and planning.
Student Learning Outcomes
After this course, you will be able to:
- Have an introduction to the Australian legal system and specific state and federal health care legislation that is in place to protect all staff from verbally aggressive patients.
- Apply basic conflict resolution principles and techniques to build rapport and create empathy with the aggressive patients.
- Distinguish and apply strategies for phone-based negotiation, de-escalation and communication.
- Practically implement the skills learned throughout the course through scenario-based training.
- Understand the reasons for attending annual security awareness training and the importance of incident reporting.
Teaching Strategies & Approaches to Learning
This course will provide healthcare workers with the necessary knowledge and skills to deal with verbally aggressive customers and will provide strategies to mitigate the risks and resolve them safely.
These examples will be provided through the use of case studies, audio-visual snippets, quizzes and practical scenarios and will offer best practice guidance for staff to handle situations confidently.
Course Logistics
Location or delivery mechanisms – This program will be delivered as an instructor-led course for all organisation staff either in-house or at a pre-determined location.
Duration – The in-house course will take between 8 hours to 16 hours to complete depending on the customer aggression risk faced by organisations.
Assessment – Although this training package is not a pass/ fail it is suggested that participants complete all questions and fully commit to the practical scenarios to ensure that they get the most benefit for themselves and the company.
Course registration – You can register for this course by calling Agilient on 1300 341 692 or emailing securityinsights@agilient.com.au.