Active Shooter Training For Hospital Staff: Keep Your Staff Safe
Hospital staff actively participate in training to prepare for potential active shooter situations, ensuring the safety of patients and employees.
Active shooter training for hospitals and medical offices is a speciality that we want to talk to you about! Active shooter training for hospital staff. Several shooting cases involving elementary school students, pregnant women, and young families have recently made headlines. The most recent ones have occurred in unexpected places.
Globally, mass shootings have increased rapidly, and no facility is safe from becoming a target, and no one is secure from becoming a victim. Active shooters have a history in schools, religious centres, hospitals, stadiums, and shopping malls.
Being ready for an active shooter scenario is essential for hospital employees since hospitals are “soft targets” for gunmen. Negative repercussions from an active shooter event can arise at any time. As a result, hospitals should provide active shooter training to their employees regularly to protect employees, patients, and visitors.
In contrast to most other soft-target settings, hospitals are vulnerable to these occurrences and have been a major concern. Hospitals deliver life-saving procedures that cannot be stopped. It primarily houses operating rooms, labour and delivery rooms, and critical care units where life-saving or life-stabilizing treatments are performed regularly.
Need To Escape, Barricade, Or Defend:
Although it may appear frightening and nerve-racking in such a situation, maintaining calm is critical. Considering the following points may be beneficial.
1. Escape
Flee the area where the shooter(s) is/are located, lock down other units, and leave personal goods behind. The patients should be relocated to a secure environment. If exiting the building is not possible immediately, run to a predetermined safe area within the unit.
2. Barricade
If running isn’t an option, ensure patients and visitors are safe. Seek refuge in a room with solid walls and few windows. This is most likely the predominant response of immobile patients and caretakers. Entryways or rooms should be locked and guarded with available furniture or equipment. Barricading doesn’t keep the bad guy out forever. We must then prepare to escape or defend.
3. Defend
Fight to defend yourself and your patients – as the last option, we teach you how to disarm the active shooter and use weapons of opportunity to increase your chances of survival.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Health workers should follow the “Run, Hide, Fight” technique. It’s best if they can make a safe exit from there. Leaving is not an option, so they should stay put and barricade the door. They should turn to violence only if they have no other choice.
Although there is no definitive profile for mass murderers, certain traits and behaviors are often present in those who commit such acts. They could be experiencing mental health problems or feeling angry and upset. They could be acting arbitrarily or with a clear goal in mind.
Every year, healthcare facilities should undertake active shooter drills for their employees. The hospital should also undertake regular drills and exercises to put its emergency plans to the test.
When hospital employees observe something suspicious, they should immediately inform a supervisor or security guard. This may help stop an active shooter situation from happening.
Several common reasons people commit acts of violence in hospital settings include vengeance against healthcare personnel or the healthcare system, the need for attention or recognition, and mental health problems.
Hospital administrations should allocate a budget for active-shooter training, including training and emergency response planning. In addition, they should routinely review the hospital’s emergency response strategy. And encourage staff to report any threats or suspicious activities they observe.
