Prevention and Mitigation of Workplace Violence and Harassment in the Healthcare Sector

Workplace violence and harassment is a serious and growing problem that exists across all occupations, sectors, and organizations. Almost 1 in 5 violent incidents in Canada occur at workplaces that often lead to injuries. Such incidents of violence and harassment are much higher in the healthcare sector because of the level of direct interactions of the workers with the clients, i.e., patients, their families, and friends. In 2021, a Canadian Medical Association Survey reported found that 78% of respondents i.e., practicing physicians, residents, and students experienced intimidation, bullying, harassment, or microaggressions in their workplace or training environment. In 2015, frontline healthcare workers had more than double the number of violence-related lost time injuries when compared to police and correctional services combined. The workplace for many healthcare workers is the patient’s home. Violence and harassment are a particularly difficult issue here because healthcare workers often work alone without backup resources close at hand. Such incidents of violence and harassment may also lead to psychological injury or death, decreased productivity and performance, reduced morale, increased absenteeism, and presents a serious occupational hazard. They also negatively impact workers, their families, the work environment, employers, economies, and society, and hence the issue is a growing concern for governments, associations, unions, employers, and workers. An array of useful practices and resources are employed across a variety of organizations, sectors, and jurisdictions to prevent violence and harassment in the workplace. But such variations, lack of consistency in definitions, knowledge, and resource gaps, and confusion on “what to” and “how to” design, plan, implement, measure, evaluate, review, communicate, and report on various requirements and interventions to comply with the legislation, wherever they exist, are some current challenges. The development of a national standard provides an opportunity to harmonize and evolve violence and harassment prevention and management-related definitions, evidence-informed and equity, diversity, and inclusion-guided approaches, strategies, best practices, and resources across the healthcare sector, including home and community care settings and also equip the governments, unions, health and safety associations, employers, and workers by informing the legislative requirements; guiding employers on designing comprehensive workplace violence and harassment prevention and mitigation programs; and building knowledge and capacity of the workers to identify and address violence and harassment at workplace. Not all violence is preventable and so this standard also intends to address how caregivers can be equipped to call for help and how prompt responses can be provided not only in the institutional environments but also when providing care in the home.