A new approach to addressing violence against nurses
According to a survey put out by Trusted Health earlier this year, half of all nurses have been the subject of an attack, intimidation or assault by a patient or patient’s family member since the start of the pandemic.
Our guest for today’s episode, Mel Cortez, experienced this first hand working in a Baltimore area ICU. Later, when she saw how many nurses were leaving the profession because of workplace violence, she was inspired to start Cortex Gold, a joint venture between two nurses and a Marine Corps veteran whose mission is to help hospitals create a safer, more secure workplace for nurses and other healthcare workers.
Today she and Dan talk about what a culture of safety actually looks like, Mel’s protocol-based approach to handling incidents of violence and the role that nurse managers and nurse leaders play in making hospitals a safer place to work.
Links to recommended reading:
- Fact Sheet: Health Care Workplace Violence and Intimidation, and the Need for a Federal Legislative Response
- Toolkit for Mitigating Violence in the Workplace
The full transcript for this episode can be found here: works.trustedhealth.com/handoff/mel-cortez-violence-against-nurses
