Many lone healthcare employees face difficult and demanding situations every day, but Safe Hub provides them with valuable protection.
We all know that healthcare workers are on the frontline when it comes to working alone. They often are working to help people who are under the influence of alcohol or narcotics. For other people who are desperately worried about their condition, their behavior can become erratic. And the added pressures on healthcare providers during the Covid-19 pandemic has fed through to healthcare employees too. Many lone healthcare employees find themselves in demanding situations when dealing with patients and the public daily. In this blog, we’re looking at some different tactics and techniques that healthcare lone workers use to protect themselves on the ground, including using Safe Hub.
Lone healthcare employees have many different roles
There’s a wide range of roles in healthcare which involve at least some lone working. There are obvious roles such as health visitors, midwives, and home healthcare workers, who normally visit people in their own homes. There are less obvious ones, such as hospital orderlies, primary caregivers, and staff supervising mental health patients. And even in a busy primary healthcare facility, staff are frequently out of sight and earshot of colleagues. During every consultation when the door is closed, doctors, nurses, and other healthcare employees are technically lone workers.
We all understand that the health system in the US is massive and complex. In many ways, that complexity puts pressure on the individual employees involved. Those working alone in hospitals and healthcare facilities across the country can feel isolated at times, even in the busiest environments. Especially for frontline health employees, there can be specific risks associated with dealing with people who are under the influence of alcohol or narcotics. Other times, people may react badly to being told unwelcome information or bad news about their own or their loved one's condition. In many healthcare services, this can translate to lone healthcare employees suffering abuse and violence.
Building a skills toolkit for lone healthcare employees
It’s especially important to build a toolkit of skills to call upon in the face of such violence and abuse. There are a range of tactics that healthcare lone workers can deploy to deal with aggression. Of course, it’s always helpful to provide training needs on how to dynamically assess risks so lone workers can respond to clinically related challenging behavior. It's no exaggeration to say that spotting the signs of potential problems can be the difference between life and death. Training on health and safety should therefore encompass employees’ responsibilities for their own safety.
Those in frontline roles can benefit from specialist training in conflict resolution. This can help in identifying, preventing, managing, and de-escalating potentially violent situations. Tactics can include active listening and empathy, through to reading body language and maintaining a neutral posture. It’s important to stay positive and stay safe in the face of disruptive behaviors such as yelling or refusing to follow instructions. But lone healthcare employees also need support from their employers when conflicts cannot be resolved, or erratic behavior escalates. There are practical steps to take here, including using technology to provide them with protection.
Safe Hub supports healthcare employees to promote their own safety
When things do become difficult, Safe Hub helps healthcare lone workers in a crisis. For our healthcare clients, using the SOS Fob device and smartphone apps in tandem is the most popular solution. Together, they give healthcare lone workers all our Safe Hub safety features. From Red Alert emergency help through to reactive Worker Down alerts, we cover every scenario in the healthcare sector. It's more than your normal 911 app.
Our Sky Alert SOS Fob is easily accessible and features a prominent emergency button to trigger a Red Alert. This opens a call with our 24/7 monitoring and response center, which can quickly assess the situation and alert the emergency services if necessary. SOS Fob is ideal for healthcare employees, where uniform and clothing restrictions might prohibit a larger device. Ergonomically designed, the device can be worn on the wrist, hung around the neck on a lanyard, worn on a clip, or simply kept in a pocket. Wearing the SOS Fob prominently could even prevent a problem escalating.
With the Safe Hub Smartphone App, we also have a proactive check-in service, Safe Check, which allows workers to set intervals between automated prompts allowing them to signal their welfare. If they fail to respond, it quickly alerts our monitoring agents, so it’s ideally suited for a busy day of appointments visiting service users’ homes.
To find out more about how Safe Hub from Sky Alert can help protect healthcare lone workers, contact one of the team today.
Call +1- 855-393-7668
Visit: www.skyalertsos.com
Email info@skyalertsos.com
About Sky Alert
Safe Hub, from Sky Alert, is an advanced security platform that protects people working alone. With pinpoint accuracy and lightning-fast response, Safe Hub is not just another 911 app. It's all-around protection for lone workers. Using a discreet personal device such as the SOS Fob, our advanced App on a smartphone, or the SPOT X satellite device, Safe Hub connects users with a state-of-the-art Monitoring Response Center (MRC). At the MRC, highly trained operatives can provide immediate assistance directing the police or paramedics to your GPS location in the fastest time possible.