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Learn MoreWe live in a world where attitudes about handling sexual abuse and harassment on an institutional level have changed drastically. The alteration is demonstrated in a recent effort by Hammond and Company, a New York City-based organization, to track media reports about allegations involving individuals in positions of prominence in organizations. At this point, Hammond and Company has tracked over 1200 recent allegations.
Here are some of the concepts involved. The first is sexual harassment, which arises in the general context of employment, and is primarily aimed at employees, those being recruited, or potential prospects. This transgression occurs in a work environment, where requiring appropriate sexual conduct has been made a condition of their hiring or retention. Interestingly, harassment has recently been extended to non-employees in the workplace.
Sexual abuse applies to relationships, where the trust between two people has been compromised by non-consensual or illegal sexual activity; in healthcare, this can include a physician or other healthcare provider and a patient. Other similar areas exist in religion, between a member of the clergy and a congregant, or elsewhere in business, between a counselor and a client. A subcategory of sexual abuse occurs when one of the participants lacks the capacity to give consent. One group of people who lack the capacity to consent are inmates—those who are incarcerated cannot have sex with correction officers or prison staff. Children under age 16 cannot consent to sex. Many states have a statute that prohibits sexual interaction between students and teachers, at least below the college level. Other prohibited groups are people with mental limits or illness, and especially sedated patients.
At a basic level, sexual abuse and sexual harassment is considered improper conduct involving individuals. However, it is important to understand the responsibility of organizations to prevent and respond to these situations. A guiding principle is that every employee is entitled to work in an environment free from sexual harassment. To guarantee this right, there are multiple people in many organizations who have a duty as “mandated reporters.” These are people who have responsibilities with respect to sexual abuse—they aren't limited to positions of significant authority, like members of the board or officers of an organization or company.
In healthcare, for example, mandated reporters are individual physicians, interns, residents, hospital staff, therapists, and a whole range of other people. They all have responsibilities and a process they're supposed to deal with any sexual abuse or harassment that comes to their attention. In healthcare, nursing homes are now getting much more attention when sexual abuse of patients has occurred. Here again individual nurses, doctors, and therapists have a responsibility to report anything about which they're aware.
A complexity just being understood, especially in healthcare, is organizational liability beyond employee and employer. If sexual harassment is perpetrated by a non-employee in the workplace, an employer is still required to take immediate and corrective action. There can be a wide variety of non-employees in a healthcare work environment. Think about medical organizations where you have large numbers of voluntary medical staff. The obligation is to articulate organizational expectations about abuse and harassment for everyone involved. Non-employees can file sexual harassment complaints, as can volunteers, vendors, or patients. The concept of a working environment in healthcare that's free from sexual harassment includes everyone involved in it. Failing to take a wider view, many organizations still focus their training most heavily on employees, and they're mainly used to responding to complaints about bad behavior involving employees. Clearly, many other people in a healthcare environment are at risk of being harassed, and you have to broaden your reach to include all the people to whom any of these restrictions apply.
This blog post is the second in a series based on the HealthStream webinar, Fostering a Safe and Secure Workplace, led by James Sheehan. Sheehan is currently Chief of the New York Attorney General's Charities Bureau, which oversees compliance and regulation of the nation's largest charity sector. Prior to this role he was the New York City Human Resource Administration's first Chief Integrity Officer overseeing audit investigation and data analysis for the nation's largest social services agency. He has additional experience as New York State's first Medicaid inspector general, overseeing the country's first mandatory compliance program. He also was an assistant and associate U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, where he developed a nationally recognized program working with whistleblowers under the False Claims Act.
HealthStream’s learning management system and comprehensive suite of competency management tools empower your healthcare workforce to deliver the best patient care.
View All Learning & PerformanceHealthStream offers performance learning management solutions to help develop your healthcare staff into leaders and reduce turnover.
View All ProductsHealthStream works with healthcare organizations to create engaging and high-quality training videos for your staff and management.
View All ProductsImprove care quality and save money by making informed decisions about your healthcare facility and staff with HealthStream's reporting analytics solution.
View All ProductsHealthStream's proven methods for the improvement and overall engagement of your healthcare staff foster a positive workplace and increase retention rates.
View All ProductsThe leadership development program from HealthStream helps mold your high-potential healthcare employees into proven leaders.
View All ProductsWhen you enact HealthStream's quality compliance solutions, you can do so with the confidence your healthcare organization will meet all standards of care.
View All Quality & ComplianceFulfill compliance requirements with a variety of programs and courseware designed to address critical regulatory requirements as well as educate staff to recognize and mitigate risks.
View All ProductsBy increasing your healthcare staff's focus on quality and safety with HealthStream, they can help to reduce medical errors and readmission rates.
View All ProductsLearn about what HealthStream's healthcare policy management software and how it can help aid your organization efforts.
View All ProductsHealthStream's education helps address diversity, equity, and inclusion within your organization, as well as promoting health equity in the communities you serve.
View All ProductsHealthStream offers professional training and education on how to best optimize your reimbursement process within your healthcare organization.
View All ReimbursementTeach your healthcare staff about the revenue cycle and claim management through targeted training and video tools from HealthStream.
View All ProductsImprove the preparedness of your staff, increase survival rates, and cut costs with the advanced resuscitation training services from HealthStream.
View All ResuscitationNurture the skills of your nurses and medical staff to help mold them into effective leaders with development training from HealthStream.
View All ProductsIn all areas of resuscitation, from neonatal to elderly care, clinical deterioration is a risk that can be avoided with the help of HealthStream's training programs.
View All ProductsHealthStream's EMS Program offers a comprehensive, CAPCE accredited EMS course library that meets National Registry annual recertification.
View All ProductsExpand the decision-making skills and effectiveness of your healthcare workforce with HealthStream's clinical development programs and services.
View All Clinical DevelopmentMake sure your clinicians have the support they need to provide competent care with clinical competency training and development from HealthStream.
View All ProductsThe suite of healthcare onboarding solutions available from HealthStream aids in nurse retention and improved patient outcomes.
View All ProductsGive your healthcare staff the decision support and skills training they need with the online products available from HealthStream.
View All ProductsHealthStream's solutions allow your healthcare workforce to be confident and competent with the knowledge they are upholding the highest of standards.
View All ProductsHealthStream’s learning management system and comprehensive suite of competency management tools empower your healthcare workforce to deliver the best patient care.
View All ProductsDelivers everything you need to request, gather, and validate information about a provider to create a single source of truth for downstream processes.
View All CredentialingMake sure your healthcare staff can schedule out appointments and work schedules with ease using HealthStream's line of software solutions.
View All Scheduling & Capacity ManagementHealthcare scheduling software designed to optimize staffing requirements & elevate patient care
View All ProductsPrecisely align staffing and needed resources to enable efficient patient flow and high-quality, cost-effective patient care.
View All ProductsHealthStream’s free nurse schedule app, NurseGrid™, is built to help you care for your staff and engage with their specific needs.
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