Recently employees of PalAmerican Security and St. Luke’s Behavioral Health Center in Phoenix, Arizona had the opportunity to attend a new instructive course for healthcare Security Officers known as ‘Patient Centric Security.’ The course was taught by Tom Taggart who is the Lead Instructor and Regional Manager of Healthcare, Atlantic Canada with PalAmerican’s Canadian division, Paladin Security.
This course is designed to promote PalAmerican and Paladin’s model of a patient-centric approach to healthcare security, ensuring that every decision made by security is considered in the impact to the overall wellbeing of the patient. Throughout the training a focus on customer service, and patient/family centered care is provided to Officers to ensure they not only have the necessary physical skills and knowledge, but also the emotional understanding of the care environment.
The extensive class included theoretical training in addition to hands-on exercises. The classroom instruction involved cause and effect situations with aggressive behaviors and emotional responses to be practiced by students. Hands-on training allowed all students to exercise the basic concepts of a non-violent approach to managing behavior; effectively utilizing body mechanics and positioning focused on non-violent aggression-management to ensure an appropriate level of safe control can be gained for both staff and the patient. Throughout the course, the philosophy of patient-centric security, separating the behavior from the person, and an empathic approach to aggressive individuals is maintained.
Patient Centric Security training was designed combining best practices and in consultation with industry leaders, including Paladin Security COO, Don MacAlister and PalAmerican Vice President, Jeff Young who both have written various chapters for the International Association for Healthcare Security & Safety (IAHSS) training curriculums for Supervisory, Advanced and Basic Security Officer certifications.
Course Leader, Tom Taggart, is Paladin’s expert in Healthcare Security in Atlantic Canada and the Chair of the Maritime Chapter of IAHSS, and recently was appointed to Nova Scotia’s provincial working group assigned by the Premier to address violence in community Emergency Departments. Most recently, Tom has been appointed as the only Canadian Member of the IAHSS Foundation’s Research and Publications Committee.
The Patient Centric Security training has been provided to Paladin Security’s healthcare Security Officers across Canada and we couldn’t be more pleased to be offering this course to our PalAmerican healthcare teams, ensuring this valuable training, insight and consultation on the values and philosophy of patient-centric security is maintained across our operations. PalAmerican/Paladin’s healthcare security programs prioritize the patient experience, and we are dedicated to ensuring our Managers and Security Officers share a common commitment to supporting the quality care of patients through their contribution to a safe environment.