Workplace Violence Prevention Training for Health Care

CPI offers specialized de-escalation training programs specifically designed for health care settings. As the industry-leading provider of de-escalation training for health care organizations, CPI has partnered with health systems for 45 years to implement customized training solutions that create safe environments for staff, patients, families, and visitors.

The training is fully customizable for all staff members in a health care organization, regardless of their job description, role, or risk level. This comprehensive approach ensures that everyone (not just those in "high-risk" positions) has a role to play in creating a safer workplace.

CPI's health care training programs equip staff with risk assessment criteria to evaluate perceived threats and provide a framework to assess potentially dangerous situations and determine appropriate responses. The training creates multiple benefits for health care facilities, including:

• Creating a safe environment
• Equipping staff with a common language
• Boosting staff confidence

Organizations that implement CPI training across their entire staff experience quicker and more consistent crisis responses, increased staff retention and job satisfaction, better cross-departmental collaboration and communication, and more effective training outcomes.

To determine the most appropriate CPI training solution for your specific health care facility, you can schedule a consultation to discuss customized options that align with your organization's unique needs and risk levels.

For hospital staff, CPI offers a comprehensive suite of de-escalation training programs designed to meet the diverse needs and risk levels across health care facilities. The optimal training approach depends on your staff's specific roles and the types of situations they encounter.

Prevention First™ serves as an excellent starting point for organizations implementing system-wide training. This 30-minute online training teaches all staff how to recognize crisis situations and call for support, making it ideal for creating enterprise-wide awareness and building a foundation of safety across your health system.

For more comprehensive skills development, CPI offers three main training levels:

Verbal Intervention™ is designed for departments with hands-off policies, providing staff with confidence and skills to verbally de-escalate disruptive behaviors involving anxious, disruptive, or care-refusing patients.

Nonviolent Crisis Intervention^® offers more extensive intervention skills and techniques to safely de-escalate crisis situations, including safe disengagements and restrictive interventions for mid-to-high risk behaviors such as trauma-induced behavior, disrespecting care staff, and using abusive language.

Nonviolent Crisis Intervention^® With Advanced Physical Skills addresses the highest-risk situations involving destructive behavior, physical aggression, and individuals causing harm to self or others.

The most effective approach involves implementing a customized training plan that provides appropriate skills for each role and risk level throughout your health system. This comprehensive strategy helps reduce workplace violence, ensure regulatory compliance, strengthen financial performance, and boost staff satisfaction while building an enterprise-wide culture of safety.

To determine the best training combination for your facility, CPI offers complimentary consultations to evaluate your current crisis prevention programming and design a tailored training recommendation.

CPI offers several training programs for emergency department staff, with options tailored to different roles and risk levels.

For comprehensive emergency department training, Nonviolent Crisis Intervention^® provides staff with essential de-escalation and crisis intervention skills. This evidence-based program equips personnel with techniques to reduce challenging behavior and prevent future incidents.

Emergency departments with higher-risk situations can benefit from Nonviolent Crisis Intervention^® With Advanced Physical Skills training, which provides additional physical intervention techniques beyond verbal de-escalation. This program emphasizes using the least restrictive form of intervention first, with advanced physical skills available when necessary.

For broader staff coverage, Prevention First™ Online Training for health care offers foundational skills that work well for organization-wide implementation across all emergency department personnel, regardless of their specific role or risk level.

CPI's training programs are specifically designed to meet compliance requirements for emergency departments. The programs align with trauma-informed approaches and teach staff to recognize precipitating factors including mental illness, substance use, environmental stressors, and trauma. Staff learn to use CPI's Decision-Making Matrix℠ to assess the likelihood and severity of harm, enabling them to determine appropriate responses to crisis situations.

The training is customizable for all staff members regardless of job description or role, ensuring everyone from clinical staff to security personnel can gain relevant skills. Organizations implementing CPI training across their entire emergency department staff typically see benefits including quicker crisis responses, increased staff retention, and improved collaboration.

Prevention First™ is designed for all individuals working in health care settings. This comprehensive training program serves a broad range of health care personnel, including support staff, administrative personnel, clinicians, and physicians.

The program recognizes that workplace violence prevention requires involvement from every level of the organization. By targeting all health care roles—from front-line support staff to medical professionals—Prevention First™ creates a unified approach to crisis prevention across departments and ensures that everyone has the foundational skills to recognize escalating behaviors and respond appropriately.

Organizations implement CPI training at scale through a structured train-the-trainer approach that builds internal capacity and ensures sustainable program delivery.

Select and Certify Internal Instructors
The foundation of scalable implementation is selecting the right Certified Instructors within your organization. These individuals will have a significant impact on the overall success of the CPI training program and are equipped with the principles and skills needed to effectively address crisis situations throughout your organization.

Follow Recommended Staffing Ratios
CPI recommends a 1:50 Certified Instructor to staff ratio, allowing each Certified Instructor to perform two, 25-person trainings each year. Additionally, establishing one Certified Instructor per building helps empower staff, leading to quicker, more efficient crisis response times.

Train Organization-Wide
Rather than limiting training to "high-risk" positions, CPI believes everyone has a role to play in creating a safer workplace. Organizations that implement CPI training across their entire staff see benefits through quicker, consistent crisis responses, increased staff retention and job satisfaction, better cross-departmental collaboration and communication, and more effective trainings for Certified Instructors.

Maintain Ongoing Training
Once certified, your internal Certified Instructors conduct ongoing trainings using CPI courses and materials. To ensure quality and prevent training drift, Certified Instructors are required to attend a CPI-facilitated program every two years.

This embedded approach allows organizations to build crisis prevention capabilities from within, ensuring training is sustainable, cost-effective, and culturally aligned with your organization's specific needs.

De-escalation training reduces staff turnover in health care by addressing core factors that drive health care professionals to leave their positions. When staff receive comprehensive de-escalation training, they gain the confidence and skills needed to handle challenging patient interactions and crisis situations effectively.

The training builds staff confidence by teaching them to recognize and prevent workplace violence before incidents escalate. This increased confidence translates directly into higher job satisfaction, as health care workers feel more equipped to manage difficult situations rather than feeling helpless or overwhelmed.

By providing hands-on training that addresses real-life scenarios health care staff encounter daily, the training gives professionals relevant, practical skills they can immediately apply in their work environment. This relevance helps staff feel more competent and prepared, reducing the stress and anxiety that often contribute to turnover.

The training also helps manage crisis behavior more effectively, which reduces burnout—a significant driver of health care turnover. When staff can successfully de-escalate tense situations, they experience less emotional exhaustion and workplace stress, leading to improved overall job satisfaction and retention rates.

Additionally, de-escalation training creates a safer work environment by stopping incidents before they start. Health care professionals are more likely to stay in positions where they feel physically and emotionally safe, and where they have the tools to maintain that safety consistently.

The systematic approach ensures all staff receive foundational skills, creating a supportive culture where everyone is equipped with the same evidence-based techniques for managing challenging situations. This unified approach reduces the isolation and frustration individual staff members might feel when dealing with difficult patients without proper training or support.

De-escalation training equips staff with evidence-based skills and strategies to safely manage disruptive behaviors and crisis situations before they escalate to violence. This type of workplace violence prevention training focuses on verbal techniques, communication frameworks, and intervention methods that help create safer environments for both staff and those they serve.

CPI's de-escalation training is customized for your workplace's unique roles and risk levels. Whether your organization follows a hands-off policy or requires physical interventions, the training ensures staff learn the specific skills necessary for their roles and the risks they may encounter.

The training encompasses several key components, including common de-escalation communication frameworks, proactive verbal de-escalation strategies, and safety intervention and disengagement skills. Programs range from Verbal Intervention™ training for departments with hands-off policies, to Nonviolent Crisis Intervention^® training that provides skills to safely respond to everyday crises, to advanced programs for facilities supporting individuals who display dangerous or complex behaviors.

To foster a system-wide culture of safety, all staff should receive de-escalation training appropriate to their specific roles and responsibilities.

CPI training can be enhanced with specialized autism-focused content that adapts core de-escalation principles for individuals with autism spectrum disorder. The Person-Centered Perspectives: Autism Specialty Topic Training provides Certified Instructors with tools to customize CPI's foundational models and techniques for autism-specific needs.

This autism enhancement can be added to any of CPI's four foundational training programs: Verbal Intervention™ Training, Nonviolent Crisis Intervention^®, Nonviolent Crisis Intervention^® With Intermediate Physical Skills, or NCI™ With Advanced Physical Skills. The specialty training helps staff understand how autism may impact behavior and apply proactive intervention strategies when working with individuals with autism.

The autism-focused training includes practical applications that help staff customize CPI's foundational models and de-escalation techniques to respond more effectively to individuals with autism in real-life situations. Instructors receive specialized tools including digital resources, worksheets, and supplemental guides featuring autism-specific strategies, examples, and activities.

This specialty topic training was developed based on direct feedback from Certified Instructors who requested more behavior-specific training content. The enhancement is particularly relevant across health care, human services, and educational settings where staff frequently encounter individuals with autism and need specialized approaches to ensure safe, effective interventions.

The training maintains CPI's evidence-based approach while providing the specialized knowledge needed to support individuals with autism through person-centered intervention techniques.

CPI training helps organizations meet workplace violence compliance requirements through several key approaches that align directly with regulatory mandates.

Comprehensive Training Implementation
CPI's train-the-trainer model enables organizations to efficiently meet training requirements for both initial implementation and ongoing annual training. This approach makes it easy to schedule training for new employees and conduct the required annual trainings that many workplace violence prevention regulations mandate.

Customizable Content for Compliance
CPI training content can be easily applied and adapted to job-specific scenarios and incidents based on organizational policies and procedures. The *Nonviolent Crisis Intervention*® Training program is designed to be easily customized, making it simple for staff to incorporate organizational policy into each discussion area within the curriculum.

Policy and Procedure Support
CPI provides comprehensive support for organizations developing workplace violence prevention plans. The training aligns with requirements for policies and procedures to prevent and respond to workplace violence, processes for reporting incidents, and follow-up support for affected individuals. CPI's Policy Development Series can be instrumental in helping organizations develop and review policies and procedures.

Proactive Compliance Strategy
Organizations use CPI training to stay ahead of regulatory requirements. For example, CHRISTUS Southern New Mexico proactively implemented CPI training to stay ahead of OSHA workplace violence training recommendations. This proactive approach helps organizations build robust, preventative training strategies that exceed basic compliance requirements.

Ongoing Support and Quality Standards
CPI maintains quality standards to help organizations achieve their intended outcomes, requiring Certified Instructors to attend refresher programs every two years to prevent training drift. This ensures sustained compliance and program effectiveness over time.

CPI training supports restraint and seclusion reduction through a comprehensive, evidence-based approach that emphasizes prevention, proper assessment, and safe implementation when necessary.

Prevention-Focused Training
CPI's Nonviolent Crisis Intervention^® program prioritizes prevention by teaching staff to recognize early warning signs of potential crisis situations through the *Crisis Development Model*℠. Staff learn nonverbal and verbal de-escalation techniques to address situations before they escalate to the point where restraint or seclusion might be considered.

Least Restrictive Approach
The training emphasizes that the least restrictive form of intervention should always be considered and utilized first, before any physical restraint. CPI employs a Decision-Making Matrix℠ that helps staff assess the likelihood of behavior and severity of potential harm, ensuring that restrictive interventions are only used as a last resort when someone's behavior creates imminent danger to themselves or others.

Proper Assessment and Monitoring
CPI training includes comprehensive instruction on recognizing signs of physical and psychological distress during interventions. Staff learn to continuously monitor individuals face-to-face and understand specific behavioral changes that indicate when restraint or seclusion is no longer necessary.

Measurable Results
Health care organizations implementing CPI training have demonstrated significant outcomes, including a marked decrease in the need for and use of restraints or seclusion. Some facilities have completely eliminated the use of seclusion while improving staff confidence and patient safety.

Post-Incident Learning
The training emphasizes post-incident debriefing to understand what led to incidents, identify alternative approaches, and modify care plans to prevent future occurrences. This continuous learning approach helps organizations systematically reduce their reliance on restrictive interventions over time.

Health care facilities can reduce workplace violence through several evidence-based strategies that address prevention, response, and organizational culture.

Implement Clear Policies
Establish comprehensive policies and the measures to take in the event of inappropriate workplace behavior. These policies help ensure consistent action and a safer care environment.

Use Team-Based Approaches
Employ the "buddy system" in situations where hostility could occur, ensuring staff members are not alone when tensions may escalate. This collaborative approach provides additional safety and support during potentially volatile encounters.

Enhance Staff Training and De-escalation Skills
Focus on improving employees' de-escalation capabilities, which has proven successful in reducing workplace violence incidents. When staff feel their skills are enhanced, they experience renewed safety and security, leading to improvements in both staff morale and patient experience.

Establish Incident Response Teams and Support Systems
Create resources to support staff during incidents, ensure proper follow-up with affected personnel, and provide daily ongoing support. Implementing Incident Response Teams (IRTs) to assist during active incidents while promoting overall staff health and well-being builds organizational resilience and improves future incident response.

Provide Post-Incident Support
Ensure safe spaces, time, and opportunities for staff to debrief with peers and leadership following workplace violence incidents. This approach helps staff feel safer at work and builds team resilience for managing future situations.

Take a Proactive, Data-Driven Approach
Organizations must seriously examine what types of incidents occur in their specific locations and understand their negative impact on staff, providers, and patients. A proactive approach to prevention, rather than reactive measures, is necessary to create meaningful change in workplace violence dynamics.

CPI^® training is widely used throughout human services and the social work profession. Certified Instructors within social work agencies conduct ongoing trainings using CPI courses and materials.

Social workers frequently encounter individuals with complex behavioral needs, whether in child protective services, mental health settings, hospitals, schools, or community-based programs. CPI's evidence-based training programs provide social workers with essential de-escalation skills and crisis intervention techniques that align with social work values of dignity, respect, and person-centered care.

Several CPI training programs are particularly relevant for social workers:

Nonviolent Crisis Intervention^® provides foundational skills in recognizing crisis development, verbal de-escalation techniques, and safe intervention strategies. This training helps social workers respond effectively to challenging behaviors while maintaining therapeutic relationships.

Verbal Intervention™ focuses specifically on communication skills for preventing and de-escalating crisis situations through verbal techniques alone.

Dementia Capable Care training is valuable for social workers in geriatric settings, providing specialized approaches for supporting individuals with dementia and related conditions.

CPI's train-the-trainer model allows social work agencies to develop internal capacity by certifying their own staff as instructors. This embedded approach ensures that crisis prevention skills become integrated into the agency's culture and daily practice, providing ongoing skill reinforcement and cost-effective training delivery.

Many social work agencies, health care systems, and educational institutions have adopted CPI training as their standard for crisis prevention and intervention, recognizing its alignment with trauma-informed care principles and evidence-based practice standards.

CPI's approach to workplace violence prevention in hospitals centers on a prevention-first philosophy that emphasizes proactive de-escalation and early intervention to create safer environments for staff, patients, and visitors.

The foundation of CPI's methodology is evidence-based training that has supported hospitals for more than 40 years, helping to train over 17 million people worldwide. This approach focuses on equipping staff with the skills to recognize early warning signs of potential crisis situations and respond with appropriate nonverbal and verbal de-escalation techniques before situations escalate.

Central to CPI's workplace violence prevention strategy is comprehensive de-escalation training that serves as a critical component of any workplace violence prevention program. The training emphasizes prevention by teaching staff to identify behavioral indicators and respond appropriately to minimize risks in the hospital environment.

CPI employs a systematic 4D approach (discover, diagnose, design, and deliver) to create customized, sustainable workplace violence prevention programs tailored to each organization's unique needs and risk levels. This methodology includes conducting risk assessments to ensure staff are trained at appropriate levels based on their specific roles and responsibilities within the health care setting.

The approach incorporates trauma-informed, person-centered training that provides staff with risk assessment criteria to evaluate perceived threats and determine the safest course of action. CPI's Crisis Development Model℠ teaches staff to recognize identifiable behavior levels during crisis situations and provides guidance on appropriate responses to effectively de-escalate challenging behaviors.

Beyond training delivery, CPI supports organizations in developing comprehensive workplace violence prevention programs, including policy development, incident reporting processes, and ongoing consultation to ensure alignment with regulatory standards and best practices.

CPI training programs directly support Joint Commission compliance by addressing key standards outlined in the Comprehensive Accreditation Manual for Hospitals.

Risk Assessment and Management
CPI training provides evidence-based risk assessment criteria that staff can use during perceived threats to evaluate potentially dangerous situations and respond appropriately to ensure maximum safety for everyone involved. This systematic approach aligns with Joint Commission Standard EC.01.01.01, which requires hospitals to plan activities that minimize environmental risks.

Workplace Violence Prevention
The training focuses on prevention by teaching staff to recognize early warning signs of potential crisis situations and equipping them with nonverbal and verbal de-escalation skills. Staff learn to identify signs of aggression and read situations for violence indicators, directly supporting Joint Commission Standard EC.02.01.01 regarding safety and security risk management.

Policy Development and Implementation Support
CPI provides consultation and support for organizations developing workplace violence prevention plans. The Policy Development Series helps organizations create and review policies and procedures that align with Joint Commission standards. CPI's implementation team assists in identifying appropriate staff to manage compliance processes and ensures alignment with Joint Commission requirements.

Comprehensive Training Approach
CPI's train-the-trainer programs and advanced curriculums offer a comprehensive array of options to support violence-free workplaces with emphasis on crisis intervention and de-escalation techniques. The training helps staff intervene more safely during dangerous behaviors while preserving the professional care environment health care workers establish with patients.

This multi-faceted approach ensures organizations can meet Joint Commission expectations while creating safer environments for staff, patients, and visitors.

The Joint Commission requires annual workplace violence prevention training for all staff at accredited behavioral health care and human services organizations, effective July 1, 2024.

The training must be comprehensive and include specific components. Annual training requirements mandate coverage of verbal de-escalation techniques, nonphysical intervention skills, and physical intervention skills. For appropriate roles, the training must also address response to emergency codes.

Beyond the technical skills, The Joint Commission specifies that workplace violence prevention training must address three critical areas:

Recognition and Awareness: Training must help staff understand what constitutes workplace violence, including recognition of different types of physical and nonphysical acts and threats occurring in the workplace.

Intervention Techniques: Education must focus on de-escalation and intervention techniques when confronted with incidents of workplace violence, emphasizing both prevention and response strategies.

Reporting Processes: Training must cover the reporting process for workplace violence incidents, incorporating violence prevention tools and encouraging use of simple and accessible reporting procedures.

The Joint Commission's requirements are prescriptive, meaning organizations must deliver training that meets these specific regulatory standards. The regulation applies to all Joint Commission-accredited behavioral health care and human services organizations and represents part of a broader framework to help these organizations develop and reinforce workplace violence prevention efforts.

CPI training programs align comprehensively with OSHA workplace violence prevention guidelines through several key areas:

Prevention and Recognition Training
CPI's Nonviolent Crisis Intervention^® program provides staff with risk assessment criteria to evaluate perceived threats, empowering them to assess potentially dangerous situations and respond appropriately. The training equips individuals with skills to identify and assess workplace violence through person-centered, trauma-informed approaches.

De-escalation and Intervention Techniques
CPI training offers effective prevention techniques, including verbal de-escalation strategies and physical disengagement skills, to manage incidents that staff cannot successfully prevent. The program emphasizes proactive measures by identifying early warning signs of potential crisis situations and educates staff on recognizing signs of aggression and appropriate responses.

Training Implementation and Customization
CPI's train-the-trainer model makes it easy to schedule training for new employees and conduct required annual trainings. The content can be easily applied and adapted to job-specific scenarios and incidents based on organizational policies and procedures. Nonviolent Crisis Intervention^® is designed to be simple for staff to incorporate organizational policies into each discussion area within the curriculum.

Incident Reporting and Documentation
CPI recommends that all incidents of violence be thoroughly documented as part of the post-incident review process, with staff assessing each incident through the lens of CPI training to identify opportunities for adjusting intervention strategies at earlier stages of the crisis.

Comprehensive Program Development
CPI's approach to organizational assessment—discover, diagnose, design, and deliver—creates effective, impactful, and sustainable workplace violence prevention training programs. Using proprietary tools, CPI can complete risk assessments for all staff, ensuring they receive training at the appropriate level based on their roles and responsibilities.

Organizations have achieved substantial, measurable results after implementing CPI training across multiple key areas.

Quantifiable Improvements:

• 89% of schools improved staff skills and confidence
• 74% of health care facilities reduced challenging behavior
• 58% of organizations reduced workers' compensation claims by more than one-third

Organizational Benefits:
Organizations implementing CPI training across their entire staff experience quicker and more consistent crisis responses, increased staff retention and job satisfaction, better cross-departmental collaboration and communication, and more effective training outcomes for Certified Instructors.

Specific Success Stories:
Notable achievements include a 90% increase in staff retention at Braun Educational Center, 18,000 staff trained at Duke University Health System, and an 85% reduction in safety interventions at Hillside of Atlanta.

Sector-Specific Outcomes:

Education: Reduced misconduct, fewer fights and assaults, improved staff understanding, enhanced student success, increased staff confidence, decreased classroom disruptions, and stronger positive peer-to-peer relationships.

Correctional Facilities: Decreased staff injuries, reduced compensation liability from injury claims, decreased use of force, and improved connections between staff and residents.

Health Care: Improved staff satisfaction, increased staff and patient safety, enhanced proactive communication techniques, better staff debriefing processes, and improved retention of quality staff.

Since 1980, CPI has helped train more than 17 million people in evidence-based crisis prevention and de-escalation techniques, creating sustainable impact across organizations worldwide.

Yes, CPI^® training can significantly reduce workers' compensation claims. Our evidence-based programs demonstrate measurable impact in this area.

Across organizations, 58% of facilities reduced workers' compensation claims by more than one-third after implementing CPI training. In behavioral health care specifically, the results are even more substantial, with 69% of facilities cutting workers' compensation claims by 20% or more.

The reduction in workers' compensation claims stems from multiple factors that CPI training addresses. Organizations report decreased staff injuries, reduced need for restraint and seclusion, and increased staff and patient safety. When staff are better equipped with de-escalation techniques and crisis prevention skills, they experience fewer workplace injuries that lead to compensation claims.

Real-world examples demonstrate this impact. Pine Hills Youth Correctional Facility in Montana experienced both a decrease in staff injuries compared to their three-year average and a decrease in compensation liability from staff injury claims. Similarly, Baptist St. Anthony's Health System saw reduced worker compensation claims as part of their overall safety improvements.

The person-centered and trauma-informed approaches embedded in our training programs create safer work environments where staff feel more confident and prepared to handle challenging situations, ultimately leading to fewer incidents that result in workers' compensation claims.