Felix Nater is president of Nater Associates, Ltd., and has more than 30 years of criminal, security & program management expertise as a Postal Inspector and Postal Police Officer holding a variety of assignments and positions at the local, regional and national levels. As a Workplace Violence Interdiction Inspector Nater covered Queens and Long Island, where he conducted hundreds of threat assessments and investigations, consulted with postal management and testified in approximately 30 Arbitration, EEOC and Merit Systems Protection Board Proceedings and civil and criminal court.
Healthcare institutions have managed workplace violence with measurable success, despite the challenges faced in hospitals, emergency rooms, mental health, nursing homes, long-term care and community healthcare facilities. The magnitude of the problem is astounding – its devastating impact looms mightily in the hearts and minds of boards of directors, C-suites and security directors as both a real institutional threat and a contentious business reality facing healthcare today.
In most corporate sectors those responsible for providing leadership, guidance, perspective and program management are torn between the corporate realities and the unthinkable damage one catastrophic incident of homicidal violence will have on their personal reputation and the corporate image. I am reminded of The 10 Myths of Workplace Violenceoriginally introduced by Dr. John Baron, PhD, arguing the need to implement basic workplace prevention strategies. Of which the most memorable myths that come to mind are “It won’t happen here” and “Workplace violence is not preventable.” Integrating and Collaborating Resources allows for the sharing of the Workplace Violence Prevention Mission through “strategic intervention.” Why? Because it allows for flexibility in managing the program in organizations, eliminates the stovepipe approach and spreads the program management and commitment throughout the organization.
Like the requirement to review technological needs against current and future applications, so must companies review and assess current training methodologies and objectives in addressing Workplace Violence Prevention and Security Awareness.
