How Safety Technology Works to Protect and Support Nurses

Have you ever noticed the small devices nurses wear around their necks or attached to their scrubs? That’s a wearable duress button, and it plays an important role in the lives of nurses and healthcare professionals. This piece of innovative safety technology is a response to a growing problem in the healthcare industry—workplace violence.

A study by the Emergency Nurses Association found that over a quarter of emergency room nurses experience physical assault, and over half are subjected to verbal abuse. This doesn’t account for the incidents that go unreported.

To combat this problem, healthcare organizations have adopted safety plans that include state-of-the-art safety technology. These tools help nurses de-escalate threats of violence and support faster response when emergencies occur.

Types of Workplace Violence Impacting Nurses

The healthcare system is under tremendous strain. Labor shortages, nurse burnout, and a rise in chronic illnesses and mental health disorders put additional pressure on hospitals.

Nurses are front-line employees, meaning they work directly with patients and are often the first healthcare professionals a person sees when receiving care. Their active role in emergency rooms and hospitals makes them more vulnerable to violence than administrative staff, doctors, or surgeons.

Patients and family members are the most common perpetrators of workplace violence against nurses. Unauthorized visitors and other healthcare staff account for a smaller percentage of incidents. When violence breaks out, it can take many forms, including:

• Verbal abuse or threats of violence
• Assault leading to physical injury
• Sexual harassment or inappropriate behavior
• Workplace bullying perpetrated by other staff
• Robbery or mugging
• Active shooter incidents

Exposure to these forms of violence has short- and long-term effects on nurses. Physical injury, trauma, anxiety, depression, and fear impact a nurse’s ability to provide quality care and cause many to leave the profession altogether. This is just one reason for the labor shortage in the healthcare industry.

Fortunately, many healthcare facilities are now taking a proactive approach to nurse protection by utilizing innovative technology and implementing structured safety plans.

Panic Buttons: A Nurse’s Must-Have Tool

Wearable duress buttons (also called wearable panic buttons) are an integral part of hospital safety plans. They provide nurses with a quick, discreet way to alert staff and security personnel at the first sign of violence.

Panic button technology includes real-time location tracking. This comes in handy if a nurse is in a vulnerable situation without the support of other staff. For example, if a patient becomes aggressive while receiving treatment in a private room, a nurse may not be able to de-escalate the situation independently. A panic button alert provides colleagues and security personnel with their exact location and the type of threat they are experiencing.

Wearable panic buttons are silent. Nurses can signal for help without alarming the perpetrator or frightening nearby patients. This level of discretion prevents the situation from escalating while staff and security rush to assist the nurse.

Many wearable panic buttons operate on their own private network, rather than relying on the hospital’s Wi-Fi signal. Nurses can rely on panic buttons in areas of poor connectivity, such as stairwells or parking lots. Service continuity provides peace of mind, especially during night shifts when there are fewer staff members on hand.

By making wearable panic buttons mandatory, hospitals provide nurses with the peace of mind they need to perform their jobs without fear of violence. Knowing that help is just seconds away instills confidence in nursing teams, enabling them to deliver the high-quality care their patients deserve.

Access Control Systems: The Key to Threat Reduction

Hospitals are high-traffic facilities. Patients, family members, visitors, third-party contractors, and healthcare professionals come and go throughout the day. This constant traffic requires a certain level of building accessibility. However, hospitals must protect nurses by restricting access to certain areas.

Federal and state healthcare legislation calls for tighter security measures in healthcare facilities. Some laws require hospitals to implement safety technology, such as access control systems, to protect nurses and other healthcare professionals from threats of violence. These systems make it impossible to enter areas without access badges or the right biometric features, like fingerprints or facial recognition.

In addition to limiting access to restricted areas, access control technology allows hospitals to lock down the entire facility in response to major threats, like active shooter situations. This protects staff, patients, and visitors while police and first responders handle the emergency.

Many access control systems include visitor management technology, which requires all visitors to check in before entering the hospital and wear ID badges that limit access to the facility. This protects nurses working in sensitive care areas like ICUs or maternity wards. Visitor management technology also allows hospitals to locate each visitor and limit their stay in the building.

Digital Mapping Technology: A Hospital’s Safety Blueprint

The faster a hospital responds to acts of violence against nurses, the less chance of injury. Digital mapping tools make rapid response possible by providing visibility of the entire facility, allowing hospitals to develop workplace safety plans that actually work.

Digital mapping technology creates a blueprint of a building, showing the location of all emergency exits and safety equipment. Hospital administrators and security personnel can monitor the facility in real time via a computer or mobile device. When a nurse activates a wearable panic button, their exact location is displayed on the digital map.

Many hospitals share access to their digital blueprint with local law enforcement and first responders. Police officers and EMTs can see the location of an incident before they arrive, reducing the time it takes to reach victims and diffuse the situation. This functionality can be the difference between life and death in active shooter situations.

Digital mapping technology collects and stores valuable data that hospital administrators can use to optimize safety protocols. For example, digital mapping can reveal where most violent incidents occur, prompting hospitals to deploy more security personnel or implement tighter access restrictions in that area.

Digital maps also integrate with visitor management technology, alerting staff when someone enters restricted areas, such as break rooms, behavioral health units, or on-site pharmacies.

Finally, digital mapping technology supports accurate incident reporting, aiding hospitals and law enforcement in investigations. This functionality also helps hospitals maintain legal compliance in states that require annual workplace violence reports.

Bringing it All Together

Most safety technology allows for easy integration so multiple systems can work together. Healthcare facilities can sync each system to create a multi-layered safety plan that involves staff, security personnel, and first responders.

Once integrated, hospitals must provide extensive training to ensure nurses know how to use safety technology to protect themselves and the patients they care for. Nursing teams should also learn de-escalation techniques to calm agitated patients and family members before a situation escalates into violence. Not only does this help reduce workplace violence, but it also gives nurses the confidence they need to perform their jobs to the best of their abilities.

Hospitals around the country partner with safety technology providers to develop the most effective safety plans possible. Companies like CENTEGIX understand the challenges healthcare facilities face and have designed their products to address the unique safety needs of large hospitals and small clinics.

By confronting workplace violence head-on, healthcare organizations provide nurses with a safe environment to do what they do best—help those in need.