Aug 12, 2026 – Preventing Workplace Violence in Healthcare: What’s Safe Patient Handling and Mobility got to do with it?

Live and recorded on Jun 10, 2026 from 2 PM – 3 PM Eastern

Title: Preventing Workplace Violence in Healthcare: What’s Safe Patient Handling and Mobility got to do with it?

Presented by Lynda Enos, RN, BSN, MS, COHN-S, CPE

Overview:

Manual patient handling and workplace violence (WPV) are two of the leading causes of injuries to healthcare workers (HCWs) across the continuum, accounting for over 50% of the injuries with days away from work and approximately 50% of worker compensation costs to healthcare organizations.

As healthcare organizations face increasing financial and regulatory related challenges, it is crucial to view safety programs from a systems perspective. Programs like SPHM and violence prevention can work together to reduce costs and time while improving outcomes for workers and patients and meeting state laws and accreditation requirements.

This session explores how SPHM plays an important role in violence prevention efforts from a culture of safety perspective. Using SPHM and ergonomic best work practices to better identify and manage potentially aggressive situations will be highlighted.

 Objectives:

1. Identify the full cost and benefits of SPHM and WPV programs for a healthcare organization
2. Define care tasks that may place a caregiver are risk of patient/resident violence when performing patient care and mobility tasks
3. Define how SPHM technology, assessment tools and ergonomics best practice can reduce the risk of patient-related violence during mobility and patient care tasks while supporting mobility goals
4. Identify freely available resources or tools that will assist in developing, implementing, and evaluating effective SPHM and WPV programs

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Meet the Speaker

Ms. Enos is a certified occupational health nurse and certified professional ergonomist with over 30 years of work and consulting experience in industrial and health care ergonomics. She holds an undergraduate degree in nursing and a graduate degree in human factors/ergonomics from the University of Idaho and serves as a nurse ergonomist and principal at HumanFit, LLC.

She is a thought leader, published author and national and international speaker on safe patient handling and mobility (SPHM), healthcare ergonomics and workplace violence (WPV) prevention.

Ms. Enos has supported more than 200 companies in developing ergonomics and safety programs including consultation in SPHM and ergonomics for over 40 hospital systems, clinics, assisted living facilities, and home health and hospice services. Assistance includes development, facilitation, and evaluation of SPHM programs for up to 6 years per facility.

She also spent 15 years as an SPHM clinical consultant at a Level 1 trauma hospital, supporting management of a comprehensive SPHM program for adult and pediatric inpatient and outpatient populations, providing SPHM training for all staff and consultation at the bedside to address patient mobility challenges.

She partnered with the Hospital Association of Oregon and five Oregon hospitals to develop a workplace violence prevention toolkit “Oregon Workplace Safety Initiative Workplace Violence in Healthcare: A Toolkit for Prevention and Management” (2017; 2nd ed. 2020) https://www.oahhs.org/safety, that has been widely adopted by healthcare organizations nationwide.

Since then, Ms. Enos has partnered with state hospital associations and insurers to deliver in-person and virtual workplace violence prevention workshops based on the toolkit to numerous healthcare organizations.

In 2019, she supported the Oregon State Stabilization and Crisis Unit in strengthening its WPV prevention program across 23 group homes serving adults and children.

Ms. Enos serves as a subject matter expert for several regulatory and research entities including, the American Nurses Association (SPHM & WPV), the American National Standards Institute and International Standards Organization (SPHM) and the Joint Commission (WPV).

In 2024, she co-authored a white paper on safe patient handling and mobility published by the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA), the Association of Safe Patient Handling Professionals (ASPHP), and ANA.

In 2025, she published a freely available comprehensive SPHM program development toolkit sponsored by the Nevada Hospital Association.https://www.nvha.net/safe-patient-handling-and-mobility-toolkit/

Her honors include the 2014 Ergonomics Professional of the Year Award from the Puget Sound Human Factors and Ergonomics society (PSHFES) and the 2017 Advocacy Award for Safe Patient Handling, awarded by the Tampa VA Research and Education Foundation and ASPHP.

 

 

 

 

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Provider approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, Provider Number CEP 15826, for 1 contact hour.

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