(450) Title: Empowering Pharmacy Faculty, Staff, and Students Using Self-Defense Workshops

Institutions of higher education are often regarded as sanctuaries, protected environments where faculty and students explore and exchange ideas in a collegial atmosphere. Consequently, incidents of violence on campus are particularly shocking and often evoke concerns about the safety of all individuals. Evidence indicates that universities are not free from violence and such incidents may include physical or sexual assault, stalking, rioting, disorderly conduct, and property crime. Furthermore, pharmacy faculty may experience workplace violence at clinical practice sites while caring for patients and training students. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that between 8% and 38% of health workers suffer physical violence in their careers. In a recent study, rates of workplace violence against pharmacists were calculated in a meta-analysis. A considerable proportion of pharmacists experienced some form of violence with an estimated 56% (95% CI: 23-89%) reporting physical and/or verbal violence over the previous 12-month period.

To address concerns, Wegmans School of Pharmacy at St. John Fisher University has begun to implement empowerment self-defense workshops for faculty, staff, and students. The objectives of the workshops are to improve areas such as situational awareness skills, identify threatening situations, learn physical and verbal strategies to counter violence, build self-confidence, and develop decision-making skills. Participants in the workshops will be asked to complete online surveys 1 month before (presurvey) and 1 month after (postsurvey) the training. The surveys will include questions related to demographic characteristics, work history, and experience with student/patient violence. Post-survey questions will be tailored to capture participants’ confidence in coping with violence and aggression. The results of the workshops will be shared at the 2024 AACP Annual Meeting.