Norton Healthcare Improves Training Perceptions +4.4 Points and Reduces Inpatient Staff Turnover Through Data-Driven Safety Response

What Was the Opportunity?

Workplace violence has become a critical and escalating threat for healthcare institutions across the United States, and Norton Healthcare is no exception. External factors combined with a growing behavioral health epidemic have led to increased rates of workplace violence incidents in the healthcare sector, especially in inpatient facilities.

Norton Healthcare's inpatient staff expressed a clear need: they wanted additional training to help them navigate violent events and prevent situations from escalating. The 2024 Employee Experience and Safety Survey quantified the gap: only 65.6% of inpatient staff members responded favorably to the item "I feel I have received adequate training to deal with an aggressive/violent individual."

The data unearthed a troubling correlation: Employees who did not feel they had received adequate workplace violence training were 2X more likely to score the item "Norton Healthcare helps me deal with stress and burnout" unfavorably. This linkage posed significant risk because, if left unaddressed, these perceptions could accelerate turnover among critical inpatient staff — precisely the employees most essential to patient care.

Norton Healthcare takes employee experience data seriously. As Conrad Kresge, Manager of Employee Experience and Insights, has noted: "In the employee experience world, when it comes to healthcare, we try to treat our EX work like a business outcome." That mindset meant the workplace violence training gap demanded the same rigor as any other operational challenge.

What Was the Solution?

Norton Healthcare launched a comprehensive, multi-layered response that combined enterprise-wide training with grassroots, employee-driven solutions.

Risk-stratified workplace violence training. The organization developed comprehensive training to provide staff with the knowledge and skills needed to feel safe and prevent workplace violence incidents. The curriculum focused on incident prevention through verbal de-escalation as well as physical intervention techniques when incidents occur. Team members were placed into risk categories based on their specific job and the likelihood of that role being exposed to workplace violence. Inpatient caregivers with higher propensity for experiencing violence were placed into higher risk categories and allocated additional training hours. By the end of 2024, 6,223 employees completed the program, and 1,089 employees completed high-risk category training.

Crowdsourced input from frontline staff. Alongside the enterprise training strategy, Norton Healthcare adopted a grassroots approach at the departmental level. Using Perceptyx crowdsourcing, employees in departments with higher likelihood of experiencing incidents of workplace violence were asked: "What is one thing Norton Healthcare can do to foster resilience and emotional well-being for staff after stressful events?" Employees could share their feedback and vote on suggestions from their peers, providing department and facility leadership with a playbook for continuing to improve training, resources, and resiliency tools.

A clear theme emerged from employees: after a stressful event, they need time to reflect and support from their peers. One employee response captured the need:

"Send a peer to talk through the event — my perception of how things went and my feelings following the event. This peer should also act as an advocate to help connect me to available resources or voice my needs to my leader if I am unsure they will facilitate something I may feel I need: a change to my schedule, an accommodation surrounding a specific patient, etc."

Standardizing Code Lavender. To address this employee-identified need, Norton Healthcare systemized and standardized "Code Lavender" procedures and resources. Following a stressful event such as a workplace violence incident, employees or leaders can call a Code Lavender. This process mobilizes peers, chaplains, counselors, and other advocates to assist the employee or team that experienced the adverse event. This helped provide the peer support and reflection time employees had specifically requested.

What Was the Impact?

Norton Healthcare used its 2025 Employee Experience and Safety Survey to measure the efficacy of the training program and support resources.

Training perceptions improved significantly. The item "I feel I have received adequate training to deal with an aggressive/violent individual" improved at a statistically significant rate for inpatient team members, rising +4.4 percentage points from prior year.

Stress and burnout support perceptions improved. The Code Lavender standardization led to an improvement in the perception of stress and burnout resources, rising +3.1 percentage points.

Inpatient staff turnover decreased. Together, these strategies contributed to a steady reduction in inpatient staff turnover, which addressed the retention risk that originally motivated the initiative.

The success reflects Norton Healthcare's broader approach to integrating employee experience and safety. As Kresge has explained: "When we can connect it back to safety, quality, and patient experience, we get attention from our system partners. They more clearly see the value and impact of these programs and resources on other business outcomes affecting healthcare."

By treating workplace violence training as both a safety intervention and an employee experience priority — and by using crowdsourcing to let employees shape the solution — Norton Healthcare demonstrated that listening and action create measurable results.