Training programs / For safety and wellbeing leads

For safety and wellbeing leads: what the code asks you to train, and how to show it

The duty in the regulator’s words, what counts as evidence, and where practice fits, in Australia and the United States.

Who this is for

You carry the duty. The incident arrives as a person

WHS, occupational violence and wellbeing leads in Australia; workplace violence prevention program owners in the United States. Safe Work Australia’s data report found “a distinct 56% increase in the number of serious workers’ compensation claims” for workplace violence and assault from 2017-18 to 2021-22.

A young retail worker wearing the headset stands in the aisle of a simulated shop floor as an older man stands close, complaining. — A man complains across the shop aisle.

A worker in a headset stands on a rain-soaked verandah as an older woman opens her front door. — A worker on the verandah, door opening.

A supervisor wearing a headset sits beside a simulated driver in a depot crib room, the driver quiet and holding a mug, practising a return-to-work conversation. — A supervisor and driver at a crib-room table.

National Safe Work Month, October 2026

Data for the October safety meeting

National Safe Work Month runs through October 2026 under the theme Safe work is for life. For Week 1, For life, and Week 2, For health, we read the claims and survey data behind the theme.

Your questions

What does the code say we must train?

The duty is to manage the risk; the codes name training as a control.

A frontline staff member wearing a headset stands with hands open at waist height, facing a simulated agitated adult. — Hands open at waist height, facing a man.

Australia: the duty, in the regulator’s words

The model Code of Practice: Managing psychosocial hazards at work: “PCBUs must eliminate or minimise psychosocial risks so far as is reasonably practicable.” Queensland writes the same duty into regulation 55C, and each state code names training among the controls. State by state: occupational violence training in Australia.

A woman runs a pre-start toolbox talk wearing the headset, breath visible in the cold dawn light, crew in hi-vis standing listening. — A pre-start toolbox talk at a depot.

Does training count as a control?

Training is an administrative control, applied after the work itself is redesigned. SafeWork NSW’s health care example scenario, published beside its psychosocial code, gives a worked example: inexperienced workers who “rely on hospital security officers to respond”, then the control, “Workers received training in Violence Prevention and Management (VPM) and hazard/ incident reporting.” The hierarchy of controls: psychosocial hazards.

A facilitator and participant discuss a completed staged exchange. A VR training scenario for immersive XR. — A participant talks through a completed scenario.

What counts as evidence of training?

For hospitals under the NSQHS Standards, Action 1.20 asks the organisation to “Monitor the workforce’s participation in training” and Action 5.34 to “Implement de-escalation strategies”. Attendance supports the participation evidence for 1.20; competence and effectiveness need more, such as observed practice. What each jurisdiction asks a record to hold: training records.

A facilitator turns over a feedback card. A VR training scenario for AI training and roleplay. — A man beside a floating panel of responses.

What a record of practice can hold

The incident type the scenario was built from.
The skills practised, as the code names them: recognising triggers, de-escalation, withdrawing, reporting.
Who took part, who facilitated, what the debrief changed.
The evaluation result and the refresher date.

United States

Where practice is written into the rules

OSHA guidance, state law and the Joint Commission each name role play, practice or a debrief.

A retail assistant practises answering a customer beside the shop counter. — A retail assistant reaches toward a shelf.

OSHA: role play, and every year

OSHA publication 3148, for healthcare and social service workers: “Effective training programs should involve role-playing, simulations and drills” and “All workers should receive required training annually.” Federal rules by setting: workplace violence training in the United States.

A man waits at the triage bay counter. A first person VR training scenario for healthcare, seen through the headset. — At the triage counter, seen through the headset.

California: covered employers, and a debrief for response roles in health care

California Labor Code section 6401.9 covers employers outside its listed exemptions, which include health care under section 3342, and requires “initial training when the plan is first established, and annually thereafter”. In covered health care, Title 8 section 3342 adds, for staff who respond to alarms or confront aggressive or violent behaviour, practice with colleagues “including a meeting to debrief the practice session”. Guide: SB 553 training.

A supervisor wearing a headset leans in to check on a contact-centre officer seated at his desk. — A supervisor checks on a seated contact-centre officer.

Washington, Nevada and the Joint Commission

Washington RCW 49.19.030, for health care settings, lists “strategies to prevent physical harm with hands-on practice or role play”. Nevada NRS 618.7313, for medical facilities, requires de-escalation training that “includes a meeting to debrief each practice session”. For accredited home care, Joint Commission EP 29 asks for “training in de-escalation, nonphysical intervention skills, physical intervention techniques, and response to emergency incidents” at hire, annually and on change. Guides: Washington, Joint Commission, how the regulators compare.

Where practice fits

Practice is the training control, built from your incident reports

Inside the simulation, a frustrated man leans across a public service counter talking fast, seen from the officer's own position, a translucent panel of choice buttons floating within reach.

De-escalation: the seconds before it turns

A frontline officer wearing a headset stands behind a public service counter, facing a simulated member of the public who leans in, agitated, practising de-escalation.

Occupational violence and aggression training

A nurse in blue scrubs wearing a headset raises her hands mid-sentence in a hospital corridor with arched doorways, an older woman in a floral dress smiling beside her.

Speaking up for safety, in the moment

A director waits in a plain meeting room. A first person VR training scenario for government and public sector, seen through the headset.

The business case, and how to evaluate it

How it runs

Run it the way your team already learns.

Workplace exchanges inside the VR Library.

Run it yourself Your facilitator runs PTR VR Library titles on standalone headsets.

Practice on a monitor, a laptop or a phone. An AI roleplay scenario for AI roleplay and practice.

In a browser Staff rehearse with an AI partner on a laptop, no headset.

A video call grid of people in their own rooms: a study, a kitchen, an office, a lounge, a home desk and a greenhouse.

Facilitated over video A PTR facilitator runs the debrief by video, wherever teams sit.

Facilitators hand over an XR practice session in a workshop room.

With your trainer A trainer you already know runs it, licensed and prepared by PTR.

PTR’s published work

What our published work includes for this reader

A hospital’s own evaluation, and research by other teams.

Inside the Mater build: an older patient sits up in a hospital bed, a meal tray across the blanket, curtains drawn beside him. — Inside the Mater build, at a bedside.

Included: a hospital’s own evaluation

Mater Education rebuilt its Speaking with Good Judgement program in VR. In Mater’s own program evaluation, over 96% of participants wanted more training in VR; Mater measured that result. Our published work includes no occupational violence or de-escalation outcome. Research by other teams: VR de-escalation training evidence.

Download the Mater case study PDF