Introducing the occupational violence and aggression (OVA) incident investigation tool

My name is Marlo.

I work as a clinical educator in a hospital in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne.

Hi.  My name's Mike.

I am a nurse educator.

I'm very passionate about trying to decrease the amount of OVA incidents that occur in hospitals throughout Victoria.

I'm passionate about reducing the incidences of occupational violence and aggression and making the environment for my colleagues a safe one.

What sort of incidents have you seen?

I have witnessed many OVA incidents throughout my career.

They can range from being abused both physically and verbally...

Punched, knives being thrown, cars being driven through the front entrance of the department.

Scratched, bit, hit.

Injuries from being strangled to jaws being broken.

Why is it important for incidents to be reported?

It's really important that OVA incidents are reported, because it helps promote a safe working environment.

If workers are safe, then the hospital can function, patients can be cared for, and we're not worried about the threat of being hurt or abused.

What are some of the benefits of the OVA incident investigation tool?

The incident investigation tool is a fantastic document to use in conjunction with the RiskMan reporting system.

The investigation tool provides a structure to the investigation.

It is specific enough to highlight the areas that could have contributed to it, but broad enough that it can be a wide-reaching investigation.

It closes that circle of communication so that staff and management can follow up on the incident properly.

It helps identify risks and what prevention strategies can be put in place to prevent further OVA incidents occurring.

It's a checklist to have a look into the areas that it may have failed and what we can do better in the future to prevent them.

'It's Never OK' campaign has had a positive effect on workers in providing education on what OVA incidents are and highlighting that all staff have a right to work in a safe environment, free from violence and aggression.

Any other advice for healthcare workers and managers?

Support your colleagues, promote the message of 'reporting is essential'.

It's not OK to accept this or tolerate this anymore.

If we don't work together, we put ourselves at risk.

We all have a right to feel safe when we turn up to our work environment.

No matter what the situation, it's never OK.

Up to 95% of Victoria's healthcare workers have experienced verbal or physical assault.

No matter what the situation, aggression and violence against healthcare workers is never OK.

Critical to addressing the problem is ensuring that all healthcare workers report incidents of violence and aggression.

As a manager, it's essential you reinforce to your team the importance of reporting incidents and ensure that they understand the process for doing so.

Once an incident has been reported, it's important that there is a clear, simple and understood process in place to investigate it, and that is where the Occupational Violence and Aggression (OVA) Incident Investigation Tool comes in.

This tool has been specifically developed to be used in conjunction with your incident reporting system to help conduct an efficient and thorough investigation of an OVA incident.

It aims to give managers a user-friendly step-by-step guide for capturing information that's critical for conducting an effective investigation.

The tool can be downloaded from the WorkSafe Victoria website and either printed out and handwritten or filled in online.

The tool should be completed with person or persons involved in the incident, the person's manager and where available, a health and safety rep.

The tool enables you to capture all the information required, including incident details, factors that may have contributed to the incident,

what controls are in place to prevent and manage OVA and a table to document the agreed actions to be taken to prevent a similar incident happening again including the people that will be responsible for these actions.

Once the investigation has been completed, the tool can be saved as an attachment and the actions, including the peron responsible for completing the actions, added to the incident report.

For more information on incident investigations and strategies to prevent OVA incidents in your workplace, WorkSafe Victoria have released a guidebook - 'Prevention and management of violence and aggression in health services'.

The guidebook is available from the WorkSafe Victoria website.

Following pilot trails, we're confident this simple tool will support employers to respond to and investigate OVA incidents in your workplace.

Because no matter what the situation, violence against healthcare workers is never OK.