ACTIVE SHOOTER
The information contained here comes from ready.gov which has a lot more information regarding personal emergency preparedness. We highly recommend that individuals looking to create a plan or simply looking for more information about emergency planning visit this website.
The information below will describe what do if you find yourself in an active shooting event, how to recognize signs of potential violence around you, and what to expect after an active shooting takes place. Remember during an active shooting to RUN. HIDE. FIGHT.
BE INFORMED
· Sign up for an active shooter training.
· If you see something, say something to an authority right away.
· Sign up to receive local emergency alerts and register your work and personal contact information with any work sponsored alert system.
· Be aware of your environment and any possible dangers.
MAKE A PLAN
· Make a plan with your family, and ensure everyone knows what they would do, if confronted with an active shooter.
· Look for the two nearest exits anywhere you go, and have an escape path in mind & identify places you could hide.
· Understand the plans for individuals with disabilities or other access and functional needs.
DURING
RUN and escape, if possible.
· Getting away from the shooter or shooters is the top priority.
· Leave your belongings behind and get away.
· Help others escape, if possible, but evacuate regardless of whether others agree to follow.
· Warn and prevent individuals from entering an area where the active shooter may be.
· Call 911 when you are safe, and describe shooter, location, and weapons.
HIDE, if escape is not possible
· Get out of the shooter’s view and stay very quiet.
· Silence all electronic devices and make sure they won’t vibrate.
· Lock and block doors, close blinds, and turn off lights.
· Don’t hide in groups- spread out along walls or hide separately to make it more difficult for the shooter.
· Try to communicate with police silently. Use text message or social media to tag your location, or put a sign in a window.
· Stay in place until law enforcement gives you the all clear.
· Your hiding place should be out of the shooter's view and provide protection if shots are fired in your direction.
FIGHT as an absolute last resort.
· Commit to your actions and act as aggressively as possible against the shooter.
· Recruit others to ambush the shooter with makeshift weapons like chairs, fire extinguishers, scissors, books, etc.
· Be prepared to cause severe or lethal injury to the shooter.
· Throw items and improvise weapons to distract and disarm the shooter.
AFTER
· Keep hands visible and empty.
· Know that law enforcement’s first task is to end the incident, and they may have to pass injured along the way.
· Officers may be armed with rifles, shotguns, and/or handguns and may use pepper spray or tear gas to control the situation.
· Officers will shout commands and may push individuals to the ground for their safety.
· Follow law enforcement instructions and evacuate in the direction they come from, unless otherwise instructed.
· Take care of yourself first, and then you may be able to help the wounded before first responders arrive.
· If the injured are in immediate danger, help get them to safety.
· While you wait for first responder to arrive, provide first aid. Apply direct pressure to wounded areas and use tourniquets if you have been trained to do so.
· Turn wounded people onto their sides if they are unconscious and keep them warm.
· Consider seeking professional help for you and your family to cope with the long-term effects of the trauma.
Washington — Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and 12 other House Democrats have introduced legislation intended to curb workplace violence in health care facilities.
The Health Care Workplace Violence Prevention Act, introduced March 8, would direct OSHA to create a standard that would require health care facilities to develop and implement facility- and unit-specific workplace violence prevention plans.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, at least 58 hospital workers died as a result of workplace violence between 2011 and 2016. In 2016, the Government Accountability Office found that health care workers at inpatient facilities were five to 12 times more likely to encounter nonfatal workplace violence than all other workers.
The legislation follows regulation enacted in 2014 in California, which went into effect in 2017, directing Cal/OSHA to craft a workplace violence prevention standard. The law requires all covered health care employers in California to develop and issue – by April 1 – plans to prevent workplace violence and ensure the safety of patients and workers.
The bill introduced by Khanna is similar: Workplaces would create and implement comprehensive violence prevention plans with input from doctors, nurses and custodial workers. The bill stresses prevention, training and worker participation. It defines workplace violence broadly to include not only physical acts of violence, but threats of violence. It emphasizes staffing as a crucial ingredient in preventing violence from occurring and responding quickly when it does.
“Health care workers, doctors and nurses are continuously at risk of workplace violence incidents – strangling, punching, kicking and other physical attacks – that can cause severe injury or death,” Khanna said in a March 8 press release. “This is simply unacceptable. The Health Care Workplace Violence Prevention Act puts a comprehensive plan in place and is a national solution to this widespread problem modeled after the success seen in California.”
National Nurses United, the nation’s largest union of registered nurses, applauded the bill.
“Right now, health care facilities are not doing enough to prevent these violent incidents,” NNU Co-President Deborah Burger said in a press release. “Under the proposed federal standard, hospitals would need to assess and correct for environmental risk factors, patient specific risk factors, staffing and security system sufficiency. There are a number of interventions that can reduce violence in the hospital.
“For example, affixing furniture and lighting so they can’t be used as weapons, maintaining clear lines of sight between workers while they are caring for patients, and providing easy access to panic buttons or phones to call for help. It is imperative that nurses, doctors, and other health care workers, along with security staff and custodial personnel, are all involved in the development and implementation of these plans.”
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