You can't sell a secret: ways to demonstrate value and influence.

How does a security director demon- strate value and influence in an or- ganization? According to the authors, a security director's title or position in an organization's hierar- chy does not guarantee that he or she will demonstrate organizational value or influence. This can only happen as a result ofwhat the director does, how well it is done or in some cases what is not done that should have been done. In this article, they de- scribe some real life achievements ex- perienced at their organization to demonstrate security's value and influence.

Keeping off-site employees safe.

To help a hospital's home healthcare nurses better protect themselves against violence, the authors developed a training program that gave employees information on what to look for, what to do in an emergency and provided them with other policies and procedures to follow. In the article, they describe the use of role playing exercises and scenario-based instruction that allowed better retention on examinations, and also influenced the employees' attitude toward training positively.

Security management internship program: a great recruiting tool for your company.

A well thought out and managed internship program is easily a "win-win" situation, according to the authors, who established such a program for the security department of their hospital. The program benefits not only the students with gaining practical experience of the business environment, but also the colleges/universities in coordinating internship opportunities for its students and business organizations in a number of ways including the possible identification of potential young career candidates to augment their current workforces. The article is based on the authors' presentation at the ASIS International Annual Seminar in September 2012.

Safe and secure handling of trauma patients.

In a society where 12-year-olds can get guns and use them, an emergency room at a pediatric hospital has to look at patient care from several angles. While a major focus should be on the treatment of the patients' immediate medical emergency and to support their recovery, one should also consider their overall safety from external risk

Staffing by the numbers: a statistical approach to staffing justication.

The article describes how a hospital's Protective Services Division, working closely with Human Resources, developed several recommendations to alter the current security coverage without sacrificing employee safety in order to minimize the use of overtime dollars. With a security department competing with many other divisions for the same dollar resources, organizations will not be willing in a tight market to support a department that does not demonstrate fiscal responsibility, according to the authors. Additionally, they state, security initiatives must be aligned with the strategic initiatives of the organization in order to be funded by senior leaders.

Putting vendors to the test.

Replacing or upgrading security systems requires that all parties involved acceptably test each component of the system before the system is turned over to the owner. This process, called commissioning, according to the authors, has enabled their hospital to preempt problems that could otherwise have plagued new systems after installation.

Customer service for security staff the "CARES" way.

When a medical center establishes an institution-wide customer service strategy, how does its Protective Services Department develop a department-specific program which links to the umbrella program. The authors spell out the philosophy, elements and employee interactions of their department's customer service training program.

The dangers of home health.

Home health nurses can encounter dangerous situations in the field that are not faced in a hospital setting. This article describes a joint program by a medical center's security and home health departments to train and safeguard home health providers.

Individualist and collectivist values: hypotheses suggested by Alexis de Tocqueville.

The work of Alexis de Tocqueville, the 19th-century social theorist who coined the term individualism, supplied a conceptual foundation for hypothesizing that individualism and collectivism, as value systems, should be directly correlated. In previous research (D. K.