Sinai Health Bioethics Grand Rounds | Virtual
Balancing patient rights and employee safety can create perilous ethical dilemmas.
Topic
Good Days, Bad Days and Reflections on Workplace Violence in Health Care
Speaker
John “Jack” Rozel, MD, MSL, DFAPA (he/him)
Clinical Chief of Crisis Services, UPMC Western Behavioral Health (Safe Harbor, resolve, Beaver County, Altoona)
Medical Director, resolve Crisis Services of UPMC Western Behavioral Health
Co-director, UPMC Systemwide Threat Assessment and Response Team (START)
Professor of Psychiatry and Law, University of Pittsburgh
Past President, American Association for Emergency Psychiatry
Abstract
The hospital is a place to care and a place to heal, a place to learn and a place to teach, a place for solace in times of crisis, and a place to care for the most needy. Balancing patient rights and employee safety can create perilous ethical dilemmas. Achieving that mission with both the exacting technical precision demanded by modern medical practice and the humanity and compassion intrinsic to a place of healing is challenging in and of itself – achieving that mission in an increasingly violent and hostile environment is one of the greatest challenges modern medicine faces. This presentation will go from a high-altitude view of the operational and ethical problem of workplace violence in health care and offer strategic guidance for health leaders.
Learning objectives
- Explain the concept of agitation as a behavioural emergency
- Identify operational and ethical limitations of securing health-care workplaces
- Distinguish the rights of patients and the rights of staff in health-care work settings