How to answer “We can’t release staff for training”

Nurse unit managers say this because it’s true: rosters are tight, agency shifts are expensive, and every hour off the floor has to be covered. The answer is not to wave that away. It’s to show that violence already takes staff off the floor, without warning, and that planned training time is the smaller absence.

What’s behind the objection?

Training hours are visible and planned; the hours lost to violence are scattered and unplanned. A request for training shows up as a single number on the roster, while the cost of incidents is spread across sick leave, overtime, agency shifts and workers’ compensation, so nobody sees it in one place. Your job is to put both in the same table.

How much time does violence already take?

• Every restraint episode. A US costing study found a single restraint takes 11 to 13 hours of staff time once the event, observation, documentation and debrief are counted (LeBel and Goldstein 2005).
• Sick leave after incidents. After a violent incident, 28% of NSW nurses used their own sick leave, and only 6.5% claimed workers’ compensation (NSWNMA, 2026). Those shifts are still backfilled.
• Injury leave on the roster. On 11 June 2026, 96 Tasmanian hospital staff were on injury leave, 47 of them from Royal Hobart (Legislative Council answers, June 2026). In a small system, that is felt on every roster.
• Psychological injuries last longer. Across the WorkCover Queensland scheme in 2025-26, a mental injury claim paid 123 days a year against 47 for a physical injury (WorkCover Queensland).
• Long injuries. Victorian public hospital staff with a psychological injury claim were off an average of 256 days, and 44% never returned to work (VAGO, 2023). That is months of backfill for one person, and sometimes a vacancy to fill.
• Agency cover. Tasmania’s locum and agency nursing spend reached about $105m in 2024-25, up from $14.5m in 2020 (ABC, March 2026). Each state guide has local figures.

What are the practical ways to fit training in?

Fit the training to the roster, not the roster to the training. Services that make this work usually combine several of these:

1. Replace, don’t add. Use existing mandatory training time for a program that changes practice, rather than adding a second layer on top.
2. Train champions. A small group of staff trained in depth can coach colleagues on shift, which is how Safewards is designed to run.
3. Go short and ward-based. Shorter sessions on or near the ward, at handover or during quieter periods, are easier to release staff for than a full day off site.
4. Stagger it. Spread attendance across rosters over several weeks so no shift loses more than one or two people.
5. Blend it. Use eLearning for knowledge and save face-to-face time for practice. WA Health policy, for example, allows eLearning first, with in-person training for new high-risk-area staff within 2 months in Perth or 6 months in the regions (MP 0159/21).

How do you answer it?

Other objections you might hear

All six on one page: answering objections to violence prevention training. To build the case from the start, begin with Part 1, the values case, or go straight to Part 2, the financial case.