P042: Are we ready for a gunman in the emergency department? A qualitative study of staff perceptions of personal health risks, workplace safety, and individual and institutional readiness to respond to “code silver”

Abstract

Introduction: Hospital-based gun violence is devastatingly traumatic for everyone present and quite tragically on the rise. The Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) has recently designated active shooter situations as “Code Silver” and advised member hospitals to develop policies and train health care workers on how best to respond. Given that emergency departments (ED) are particularly susceptible to opportunistic breach by an active shooter and staff members are likely to be called upon as first responders, the impact of a Code Silver on ED functioning and staff members may be particularly severe. We hypothesized that there may not be a simple, one-size-fits-all-hospital-staff solution about how best to prepare ED physicians and staff to respond to a Code Silver situation. Methods: In order to inform and support future staff training initiatives related to Code Silver and other disaster situations in hospitals, we conducted a robust qualitative study to investigate perspectives and behaviour related to personal safety at work and Code Silver in particular among the multi-disciplinary ED staff at a single tertiary care centre in Toronto, Ontario. Participants for in-depth interviews and focus groups were recruited using a combination of stakeholder and maximum variation sampling strategies. Data analysis occurred in conjunction with data collection and standard thematic analysis techniques were employed. Results: Initial data analysis has revealed the following thematic concepts: the ubiquitous banality of personal health risk as an expected, acceptable feature of everyday life at work for ED staff, the perception of active shooters as a transgressive threat that violates the boundaries of professional responsibility, and the perceived fallacy of “readiness” to respond to disastrous situations. A fulsome analysis will be ready for presentation in June. Conclusion: Knowledge from this study indicates that ED staff members have unique and specific training needs in relation to an active shooter situation, and gives us deeper insight into potential areas of focus for training and opportunities for knowledge translation on the topic of Code Silver for EDs across the country.