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Maintain staff training and education to prevent infant abduction

Staff Development Weekly: Insight on Evidence-Based Practice in Education, February 13, 2004

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Infant abduction is not just a nightmare for parents. This security breach is also quite alarming for hospital staff. The first hospital infant abduction in 22 months took place on Christmas Eve when a baby was abducted from a mother's room at Beth Israel Medical Center in Newark, NJ, reminding hospital staff that these incidents still occur. "What I observe and anticipate is that as more and more hospitals train staff about infant abductions, conduct drills to test protocol, and use technology, it will be more difficult for an abduction in the health care setting," says Cathy Nahirny, supervisor for the case analysis and support division at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). The longer hospitals go without an infant abduction, the easier it is to let their guard down. While this incident calls for facilities to review policies and procedures for preventing infant abduction, it's also a catalyst for taking proactive steps toward staff training and education. When reviewing infant abduction prevention, keep the following in mind:

• Make sure you've trained ALL staff. Complete training on infant abductions that educate about the "typical" abductor. Staff should always politely ask any suspicious person who he or she is there to see, Nahirny says. Communicate with nearby hospitals in the area if a suspicious person has visited your hospital.
• Review and practice infant abduction drills. If the hospital doesn't have a specific code when an infant abduction takes place, create one.
• Don't forget to convey to your staff the importance of educating parents. Remember, more than 50% of abductions take place in the mother's room at the hospital.

To read more on infant abduction prevention, go to Healthcare Security and Emergency Management (HSEM). The cost is $10. Subscribers to the online version of HSEM have free access to this article. Subscribers to the print newsletter can find this article in their February issues. For the cost of just three stories, you can get the entire February issue of HSEM, click here to choose between the PDF and HTML versions for just $30. HSEM online subscribers have free access to this issue, and print newsletter subscribers can find this issue in their mailboxes.

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