Workplace Violence Grant Program
House Bill 280 (H.B. 280), 85th Texas Legislature, Regular Session, 2017, added Section 105.011 to include a workplace violence grant program. Program rules are available in the Texas Administrative Code, Title 25, Part 1, Chapter 13, Subchapter G. The Texas Center for Nursing Workforce Studies administers the grant program to fund innovative approaches for reducing verbal and physical violence against nurses in hospitals, freestanding emergency medical care facilities, nursing facilities, and home health agencies.
2022-2023 Grant Recipients
The 2022-2023 Workplace Violence Against Nurses Grant cycle has ended. Presentations from two awardees on their grant projects and outcomes took place on November 13th, 2024.
Presentations:
Baylor Scott and White Research Institute: Dr. Penny Huddleston presented on their project which included installing The Bond Application, a phone app that can be used to notify staff in the local area, hospital security, or the police department in a workplace violence event, on the phones throughout Emergency Departments.
Midland Health: Drs. Carol Boswell and Rebekah Powers presented on their project which included assigning new employee badges; access to standardized/focused de-escalation education, training, and ongoing emotional support for nurses; opportunities to engage in safe dialogue via L.E.A.D. events; organized monthly newsletters; and integration of a workplace violence committee to normalize operations and ensure ongoing strategies.
2024-2025 Grant Recipients
Four awards were made through the 2024-2025 Workplace Violence Against Nurses Grant Program. These awardees will implement their projects measure their impact on violence in the workplace until February 2026. Their final project reports and presentations will be in Spring 2026.
| Awardee | Award Amount | Project Description |
|---|---|---|
| Guadalupe Regional Medical Center | $170,088 | The Recognize and Respond project will include tiered levels of training for employees to learn to identify escalating behaviors, techniques for verbal de-escalation, and skills to respond to crisis with safe disengagements and restrictive interventions. It will also include the implementation of mobile duress badges to allow a discreet request for rapid incident response at the employee’s exact location. |
| Memorial Hermann | $199,480 | This program will provide specialized behavior management training to RNs who treat individuals with challenging behaviors following acquired brain injury. Rates of workplace violence, RN psychological well-being, and staff retention will be measured before and after implementation of behavior management training. |
| JPS - Tarrant County | $148,263 | JPS plans to use grant funding to expand training in a trauma-informed program that will use a train-the-trainer model. Nurses will complete computer-based learning to review violent events and use a scale to assess patient aggression. Through this program, nurses will receive hands-on training to recognize and defuse aggressive behavior. |
| Midland Health | $149,170 | The project includes training trainers in Satori Alternatives to Managing Aggression (SAMA) to provide training to nurses in the hospital as well as 50 additional nurses in rural hospitals and community agencies; offer an area-wide Workplace Violence Prevention conference, offer nurses the opportunity to discuss workplace violence issues through Leadership Excellence Advancement Development (LEAD) events and Schwartz rounds; continuing education related to management of access-controlled nursing units, and community education on workplace violence in healthcare will be produced and broadcast. |
For a list of previous awardees, please email us.
Request for Applications
The application cycle for FY 2026-2027 is tentatively planned for Fall 2025.
Grant Program Reports
- 2024 Update on Implementation of Workplace Violence Against Nurses Prevention Grant Program Legislative Report (PDF, 257KB)
- 2023 Update on Implementation of Workplace Violence Against Nurses Prevention Grant Program Legislative Report (PDF, 251KB)
- 2022 Update on Implementation of Workplace Violence Against Nurses Prevention Grant Program Legislative Report (PDF, 772 KB)
- 2021 Update on Implementation of Workplace Violence Against Nurses Prevention Grant Program Legislative Report (PDF, 411 KB)
- 2020 Update on Implementation of Workplace Violence Against Nurses Prevention Grant Program Legislative Report (PDF, 886 KB)
- 2019 Update on Implementation of Workplace Violence Against Nurses Prevention Grant Program Legislative Report (PDF, 203 KB)
- 2018 Update on Implementation of Workplace Violence Against Nurses Prevention Grant Program Legislative Report (PDF, 179 KB)
You can also access data and reports from the workplace violence studies conducted by the TCNWS.