Introduction
Sir Desmond Tutu said, ‘If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.’ Too often, health care leaders have looked the other way when faced with inappropriate behaviour perpetrated by doctors. If leaders fail to create a culture of accountability and take decisive action against sexual harassment, we become complicit in the abuse.
Sexual harassment is one of the most extreme abuses of power, the ultimate act of disrespect. It is not just a legal and social issue, it is a chronic occupational health problem intrinsically linked to gender inequality. It takes a huge physical, psychological and emotional toll on impacted people. It also affects patient satisfaction and outcomes by impairing workplace productivity, safety, quality and innovation. Employees who feel unsafe or disrespected at work are less likely to share their innovative ideas and excel in their careers. At a time when health care is in desperate need of reform, we cannot afford for brilliant minds to stay silent.
A toxic culture is also felt and witnessed by patients, making them less likely to seek care and engage with clinicians. A workplace that is unsafe for women is a workplace that is unsafe for patients. As health professionals, we strive to improve the health outcomes of our patients so they can live long, fulfilling and happy lives. We cannot do that if we don’t create an environment that is respectful and inclusive with organisational systems and processes that empower people to speak up and take action when they see or encounter misconduct.
Change is difficult, particularly when dealing with an entrenched culture in medicine that warns against rocking the boat. A culture that has justified the criticism and humiliation of trainee doctors to be a rite of passage, a way to ‘toughen them up’ as they prepare for the rigours of their profession. A culture of fear and silence where complaints of sexual harassment have derailed or ended the careers of countless clinicians, mainly women.
Too many bright, capable doctors have been driven out of prestigious fields because bullying and sexual discrimination have continued to go unchallenged. Leaders have the power to ignite change, to draw a line in the sand and say ‘No more’. Good intentions are not enough. It takes strength, focus, time and collaboration. It requires you to lead with empathy while committing to decisive action underpinned by robust policies and processes, and clear measures for success.
If you talk about sexual harm among female doctors, chances are they will each have a personal story to tell. For Deborah, one in particular stands out:
When I was starting out in my health career, I would laugh nervously when a colleague said or did something inappropriate. I didn’t want to say anything for fear it would affect my career and I would be viewed as a bad sport, so I laughed. I brushed it off. I let it happen again and again and eventually I became desensitised to the culture so entrenched in hospitals, clinics and offices across Australia. Later in my career, I attended a social event with clinical colleagues. I thought because I was in my 50s and a respected health care leader, that I was safe from the behaviour I had witnessed and endured for over three decades.
There was a colleague at the function who thought it would be funny to walk up to the female doctors and shove his hand between their legs. No one was safe from his advances, including me. I felt shocked, embarrassed, angry and violated and yet, I let it go. I didn’t want to cause a scene or rock the boat so I just avoided him for the rest of the evening. Should I have confronted him? Yes. Should I have been put in that situation in the first place? Absolutely not.
For Elizabeth, another example stands out:
I was working at a university an ivy league medical school and was asked to attend an important meeting to discuss the future. When I arrived, three high level leaders were discussing the incidents of rape on the campus. Instead of demonising the actions of the perpetrators and discussing how to hold them accountable, the conversation was full of victim-blaming and demonstrated a distinct lack of empathy – The girls get so drunk, what do they expect? Boys will be boys, after all. Their main concern was not the welfare of the female students but rather the impact on the university’s reputation – How could they keep it quiet? How could they avoid a media storm?
All of the people involved in the discussion were men. Men with daughters at the same university, not that you should need a daughter to care about a woman’s suffering. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I was stunned and horrified. I meekly participated in the conversation that I was there to participate in but I was unhappy from that day on. Like Deborah, I often think about that day and wish I had confronted them. Wish I had stood up for the students who deserved so much better than judgement and blame. They deserved empathy and action.
In these situations we all like to think that we would speak up. Too many people don’t feel as though they can. As leaders, we need to create a workplace culture where people aren’t just enabled to speak up, but consider it an imperative – for themselves, their workplace, their patients, and the future of the profession they love. Like most things in health care, prevention and early intervention are key.
In this chapter, we share our experiences of effecting cultural change as health care leaders and educators in Australia and America. This a complex subject. We haven’t always gotten it right but when we have failed, we have learned, adapted and stayed the course. It is vital that we keep this conversation going, and that we continue to find ways to enhance accountability in health care. It is up to us to set the standard, build better systems, disrupt the status quo and lead with empathy. By learning from the past, we can create a future free from sexual harm. A future where our people are empowered to improve the health outcomes of the community in an environment that is safe, respectful, diverse and inclusive.
Barriers to Creating a Workplace Culture of Respect and Accountability
It’s difficult to have a zero-tolerance policy in the workplace when there is so much tolerance of sexual misconduct both within and outside of it. Within the hospital walls, there are hierarchical structures, unequal gender power dynamics, microcultures and a willingness to accept transgressions as ‘the way it is’. Instead of being applauded for speaking up, doctors report that seeking legal restitution can damage their personal wellbeing and standing among fellow doctors. (Reference Stone, Phillips and Douglas1)
The concept of a ‘power over’ culture rather than a ‘power with’ culture has been increasingly discussed in the health sector. A ‘power over’ culture is characterised by fear, hierarchy, judgment, silos, an ‘us versus them’ mentality and all the ‘isms’, including racism, favouritism and rankism. A ‘power with’ culture is characterised by collaboration, empathy, joy, gratitude, good mentorship, good talent management, shared decision-making, great patient experiences and positive patient outcomes. (Reference Kennedy Oehlert2) Whereas a ‘power over’ culture limits innovation and enables sexual misconduct to go unchecked, a ‘power with’ culture prioritises relationships at a strategic level and delivers the results you want.
While the modern approach to delivering health care is very team-based, that wasn’t always the case. A lot of doctors have progressed through their careers as the alpha decision-maker and aren’t used to being questioned or held to account when their behaviour doesn’t align with what’s expected. If a culture is characterised by ego rather than humility, then people are less likely to learn and improve the way they interact and operate.
Most health care settings will have a code of conduct along with a set of policies and procedures relating to sexual misconduct. However, these are often complicated, corporate documents that sit on the staff intranet and never get read after orientation. If you want to eradicate sexual harm, you need employees to understand what’s expected of them, how those expectations relate to your strategic goals and organisational values, and how your systems and processes support and guide their behaviour.
When sexual misconduct is reported, there can be a tendency to go easy on the alleged offender depending on the severity of the complaint. Over decades in health care, we have often seen managers deal with conflicting accounts of what transpired by transferring either the offender or complainant to a different department. It can be challenging to let staff go, especially when dealing with workforce shortages, but moving people around the organisation can contribute to a permissive culture where sexual misconduct is not just tolerated but enabled. Impacted people will only come forward if they feel safe doing so and if they have confidence that their complaint will be handled in a fair, compassionate and timely manner.
When dealing with sexual harassment complaints, people within your organisation will have competing priorities and concerns, including reputational damage, operational downtime, legal implications, workforce shortages, staff wellbeing and patient safety. People will also have varying views on what constitutes inappropriate behaviour based on their beliefs, upbringing and life experiences. They may have misguided beliefs that women have no place in their profession, that gender-based jokes should illicit laughs rather than condemnation and that commenting on a women’s appearance should be accepted as a compliment. It may sound obvious, but you cannot assume that people view the world as you do.
There are also powerful external influences at play. In Australia, we see footballers commit acts of violence against women and go on to enjoy thriving careers both on the field and in the media. In America, we’ve seen men accused of sexual assault and rape hold the highest positions of political power. The global media continues to objectify women and promote gender stereotypes, and women experience disproportionate levels of abuse through social media platforms.
As leaders, we cannot tackle it all, but changing our workplace culture can positively influence societal norms. When our employees are equipped to recognise and call out inappropriate behaviour in the workplace, they may be inspired to tackle it outside of their work environment. For example, they may start to reflect on how internalised misogyny impacts their perceptions, behaviours and tolerances in everyday life, or they may start to call out victim-blaming rhetoric at social gatherings or online. No matter how small your organisation or department, your efforts may have a greater impact than you realise.
The Way Forward: A Framework for Cultural Change and Workplace Accountability
We are experiencing an epoch-changing period of time. Global movements including #MeToo, #LetHerSpeak, #TimesUp, #BalanceTonPorc, #NotYourHabibti, #Teknisktfel, #QuellaVoltaChe and #YoTambien have revealed the prevalence and destructive impact of sexual abuse and gender inequality. For the most part, people are more attuned to the need for a safe and harassment-free workplace, and more willing to have tough conversations and commit to change. We can leverage the current climate to build momentum and proactively create a safer industry for the next generation of female doctors. As leaders we can say, ‘This ends with me’.
Instead of waiting for a complaint to be made, we need to address the systemic drivers of sexual harassment and stop it from occurring in the first place. When a complaint is made, we need to lead with empathy and take decisive action.
Establishing a Foundation for Change
Workplace culture strongly affects your organisation’s ability to achieve its strategic goals, which is why creating a respectful environment should be a defined part of your organisation’s strategy. When you spend time getting the fundamentals right, you lay the foundation for long-lasting and meaningful change. Start by providing direction, setting expectations and establishing accountability for results. Your employees need to know that eradicating sexual harm is a leadership priority.
Draw a Line in the Sand
Setting clear expectations is critical. Employees need to understand exactly what’s expected of them in a non-dictatorial and collaborative way to empower and inspire positive action.
Start by drawing a line in the sand. Make a strong statement that says, ‘From this point on, we will no longer tolerate inappropriate behaviour in our workplace’. If your organisation has failed to take action in the past, acknowledge your shortcomings, apologise and commit to stronger leadership. When you show vulnerability as a leader, you invite people to become more involved in the change process and more invested in the outcome.
If your organisation can manage the impact on operations, invite staff to in-person or hybrid events where you clearly outline the way forward for your organisation and encourage them to share their views and ask questions. While the events need to acknowledge where things have gone wrong in the past, the overall tone should be positive and aspirational – a chance for everyone to work together to create an industry-leading workplace that sets the standard in staff wellbeing and health care excellence.
Communicate the Why
Once the commitment is clear, help employees understand why the change is so vital and what success looks like. Paint a picture of the future state where all employees feel safe, respected and motivated to achieve their career aspirations and improve patient outcomes. Align the objectives to your organisational vision, mission and values as well as your employees’ job responsibilities. Everyone needs to understand that sexual harm is a workplace health and safety issue and will be treated accordingly.
If decades in the health sector have taught us anything, it’s that clinicians genuinely care about improving the health outcomes of their patients. When employees understand how sexual abuse impacts productivity, innovation and patient safety, they will be more motivated to lead change.
Bring Your Organisational Values to Life
A lot of health care organisations profess to be ‘values-driven’, but what does that mean? Your values need to be more than words that appear on your website and in your staff orientation pack.
If one of your values is ‘accountability’, what does that look like on a daily basis? How do your staff live that value in the way that they conduct themselves? Instead of telling your people what you think accountability looks like, ask them to develop a specific list of behaviours and scenarios that demonstrate accountability. By inviting open conversations and co-designing expected behaviours with your employees, they evolve from spectators to invested partners in the change process.
Develop Clear and Concise Policies
There can be a tendency to make policies long and complex to avoid legal ambiguity, but this can deter impacted people from making a formal complaint. Your policies and procedures need to be clear, concise and easily accessible, including a standalone policy on sexual harassment. (3)
Your sexual harassment policy should include your organisation’s zero-tolerance commitment, information on how to recognise inappropriate behaviour, a clear reporting procedure, and information on available support networks. Sexual harassment should also be referenced in your code of conduct, employment contracts, sub-contractor agreements and performance management frameworks.
The focus should be on integrating these policies and procedures into ‘business as usual’, so that expected behaviours become the norm and there is no need for leadership to rule with an iron fist. In order for this to happen, everyone needs to be engaged in the process, including the board of directors, executive team, managers, clinicians and frontline staff.
Align HR Processes
Your human resources department will often be the first point of contact for people impacted by inappropriate behaviour. The team needs to handle every report with diligence and empathy. Often in health care, the timelines are stretched out due to staff rosters which can place undue stress on the complainant at an incredibly vulnerable time. Impacted people need to know that they will be taken seriously and their complaint will be investigated quickly and thoroughly.
Recruitment processes also need to align to your zero-tolerance approach. In health care, we want highly skilled clinicians who can provide excellent patient care, but we also need to hire people whose values and behaviours align with our desired culture. When you hire or promote the arrogant misogynist with a reputation for disrespecting and bullying his registrars, you are sending a message to your employees that your commitment to creating a respectful workplace is conditional. Alternatively, when behaviour is a key driver in your recruitment and dismissal process, you create a peer-driven environment and ‘power with’ culture where your people set the high standards on your behalf.
Recruit a Team of Advocates
Catalysing cultural change requires you to capture the hearts and minds of your employees. One of the most effective ways to achieve that is to recruit advocates at all levels of your organisation. This ensures the change is not just seen as flowing from the top down but avidly supported and driven from within.
Your advocates or ‘change champions’ should represent various departments and include a diverse mix of front line, mid-level and senior employees who are trusted and respected by their peers. Ideally, you want a team who are approachable, influential, positive and known for leading by example.
Managers should gather their team of change champions to explain the importance of their role, define expectations and provide them with tools to support their success including key messages and communication tips. These empowered advocates can ensure staff understand your organisation’s expectations and complaints procedure while encouraging staff to participate in surveys and provide ongoing feedback.
Set Measures for Success
A clear set of metrics will help measure your progress and provide valuable insights into your workplace culture. The leadership team should regularly assess and report the number and severity of formal complaints while acknowledging that an increase in reporting may not indicate an increase in sexual harassment but rather an increase in impacted people feeling comfortable enough to report it.
It’s also important to monitor the informal reports that are being managed within various departments where the impacted person does not wish to make a formal complaint. While every organisation is different, other recommended tools include annual staff surveys, pulse or spot surveys, and exit interview feedback.
Demonstrate Your Ongoing Commitment to a Safe, Respectful and Inclusive Workplace
Creating a safe and respectful workplace is not something leaders can tick off as a completed project. It is an ongoing process that requires focused effort, consistency and flexibility across all departments and levels of your organisation. Once you’ve established the foundations for change, your actions and analysis need to maintain momentum. As with any framework or strategy, it’s important to keep listening to impacted people, to keep assessing what’s working and what could improve, and to stay nimble and humble enough to make changes where necessary.
Listen to and Support Impacted People
Your employees will not speak up unless they feel safe doing so. Your organisation needs to provide people with a clear and confidential pathway for accessing comprehensive advice and support. Any issues that arise should be handled quickly by people who are trained to deal with trauma and can handle difficult conversations with empathy and without jumping to conclusions.
Impacted people need to be involved in the decision-making process and given options for handling the issue either informally or via the formal complaints process. From the moment a complaint is made through the resolution process and beyond, impacted people should remain informed and supported with access to both internal and external support networks to maintain their physical and psychological health.
Intervene Early to Avoid Escalation
Not every complaint needs to escalate and become formal. Responses need to be tailored to the severity of the actions and the desired outcome of the complainant. Many impacted people just want to be heard and for the inappropriate behaviour to stop. Their preferred result would be for the perpetrator to understand what they did wrong, apologise and commit to rectifying their behaviour moving forward.
By intervening early, you can avoid the situation escalating and the behaviour becoming more severe. Whether you follow an informal or formal pathway to achieve the desired outcome, the focus should be on instilling trust in your procedures and meeting the needs of the impacted person.
Understand the Power of Microcultures
People’s beliefs and behaviours are the result of various factors, including their culture, religion, life experiences and relationship dynamics. You need to understand the biases and unconscious biases as well as the cultural and societal factors at play. While you are striving to create an organisation-wide culture, within that there will be a diverse set of microcultures that can support or hinder your progress.
Sometimes microcultures bring a positive ethos and energy to your workplace, whereby people are natural leaders who inspire fairness, equality, collaboration and inclusion. In other instances, the microcultures can result in patriarchal attitudes that create a gender power imbalance and hostile work environment undermining your efforts to achieve equality. In a microculture of toxic masculinity, sexual harassment may be dismissed as ‘just a bit of fun’ or ‘banter’ and your efforts to eradicate it will be viewed as excessive and elicit strong resistance.
Encourage your leadership team to listen to the lived experiences of your employees so that any detrimental beliefs or behaviours can be openly discussed and challenged. Your employees may not realise that the attitudes and behaviours they have grown up with and become accustomed to may be harming those around them.
Be Prepared for Challenging Behaviour
Even your most values-aligned employees will not get it right all the time, neither will you or your leadership team. When people are stressed, they fall back to poor behaviour, and when people are used to walking past inappropriate behaviour, it takes concerted effort and courage to stop and start speaking up.
Good leadership is about encouraging your employees to reflect on how their actions are affecting others, including their colleagues and patients. In a fast-paced health care environment, this can be tough, but mindfulness and reflection are fundamental parts of long-term behavioural change. You can encourage reflection by sharing your own personal experiences with your team. Where have you fallen short in the past? What did you let slide so as not to rock the boat? How did you learn to change your approach and why? Sharing personal stories is a way to connect and alter behaviours without coming across as evangelical or dictatorial.
View Sexual Harms through the Gender Equality Lens
Achieving gender equality is a key goal in the prevention of sexual harassment against women. As you work towards eradicating sexual harms, you need to create a culture that is inclusive of all genders and has diverse representation at all levels.
In the health care industry, women are still underrepresented in leadership positions, creating unequal gender power dynamics. Organisations need to proactively address the gender pay gap, create a strong pipeline of women advancing into senior roles and introduce flexible working arrangements for parents to encourage women to return to the workforce and progress up the ranks after having children.
Inspire Leadership at All Levels
Eradicating sexual misconduct needs to be a priority across all levels of the organisation, including the board of directors, executive team, senior leaders, and administrative and clinical staff. The board and executive team need to set the tone and lead the charge, not because it’s mandated but because it’s the right thing to do. The message should be clear, ‘If you abuse or harass others, there is no place for you in our organisation no matter what your credentials are.’
Accountability cannot exist without transparency. The board needs to receive regular reports on any formal or informal reports of sexual harassment, and all staff should be informed on progress, including openly discussing staff survey results and areas in need of improvement.
The executive team and senior managers must show a united front and back up statements with daily actions. During team huddles or meetings, celebrate the cultural wins and openly discuss what needs to be improved. Every member of staff needs to be empowered and energised to create a safe and respectful environment. They need to be reminded that when they fail to act against sexual misconduct, they become part of the culture that enables it.
Be Prepared for Resistance
Every time you make an organisational change, even when it’s for the global good, you’ll encounter employee resistance. Sexual harassment is a very complex and sensitive subject that can and will evoke strong opinions and reactions. Your employees will need to examine their beliefs and behaviours, which can be confronting and uncomfortable. For impacted people, the process may uncover distressing memories or activate a trauma response. You need to be prepared for criticism, pushback and heightened emotions.
Some people will have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo and will simply refuse to adapt. Your job is to help people understand how the change benefits them and their patients. Keep clarifying expectations, communicating the why, and offering training and support as needed. When people start to see and feel the benefits of a more respectful ‘power with’ culture, their resistance to the change should dissipate. If it doesn’t, you need to help them see that your organisation is not a ‘values fit’ and therefore not the right environment for them.
Don’t Throw in the Towel
With every change project there will always be a moment when it looks like it’s failing. You’ll likely feel that all your efforts have been for nought and the challenges are just too big and insurmountable. In those moments, the desire to pull back and focus on something else is strong. Don’t. Once you’ve chosen to go down a particular path, you have to keep going. Changing your organisational culture is extremely difficult but it’s usually at that moment, when it all feels too hard, that you’re about to start making real progress.
If you’re doing something that is driven by strong values and principles, you have to keep pushing though the barriers because your employees and patients deserve to experience all that’s on the other side – a safe, inclusive and respectful workplace that continually evolves and innovates to improve the health outcomes of the community.
| Established in 1996, Dental Health Services Victoria (DHSV), now Oral Health Victoria, is responsible for delivering public oral health services in Victoria, a state in Australia. Accountable to the Victorian Minister for Health and funded by the state’s Department of Health, the agency provides emergency and general oral health care at the Royal Dental Hospital of Melbourne and purchases oral health services for public patients from over fifty not-for-profit community dental agencies across the state. |
| In 2016, DHSV launched a new five-year strategic plan for improving Victorians’ access to high-quality, equitable dental care. The plan included four strategic themes: 1) improve health outcomes for patients; 2) improve the experience of care for both patients and providers; 3) be global leaders with local partners; and 4) be a great place to work and a great organisation to work with. The board and executive team decided that the best way to achieve the strategy was to use the principles of value-based health care. Value in health care is defined as ‘the measured improvement in a person’s health outcomes for the cost of that improvement’. (Reference Teisberg, Wallace and O’Hara4) |
| Before launching new models of oral health care, DHSV CEO Dr Deborah Cole wanted to focus on it becoming a great place to work. The Victorian Auditor-General’s Office (VAGO) had recently released a report titled ‘Bullying and harassment in the health sector’ in response to several public instances of this behaviour at VAGO and other sites. The report concluded that health sector agencies lacked the leadership, policies, procedures, and staff training needed to recognise the impact of harassment and bullying ‘even when such issues resulted in significant media attention and reputational damage’. (5) |
| The DHSV leadership team facilitated discussions with staff about the organisation’s existing values, or the ‘DHSV Way’, and solicited input on standards of conduct. These conversations exposed different interpretations of ‘acceptable behaviours’ among individuals and particularly across teams. In response, the leadership team created a new code of conduct to clearly define ‘above the line’ (acceptable) behaviours and ‘below the line’ (unacceptable) behaviours. |
| Following discussions with the staff, DHSV introduced its Respectful Workplace Framework, which had six dimensions: equity, diversity, inclusion, flexibility, wellbeing, and safety. Leadership then developed a Respectful Workplace Action Plan for implementing the framework. Actions focused on ensuring staff understood both the reasons for change and their responsibility for aligning organisational systems and processes to support it. The plan also established a network of peer advocates called the Wellbeing Contact Officer Network. These staff provided a point of contact for information and mediation services for colleagues experiencing inappropriate workplace behaviour. |
| In December 2016, DHSV wrote a formal statement titled ‘Joint position statement against bullying, harassment and inappropriate behaviour’ and signed it with multiple academic partners and professional associations. The statement promised to uphold the rights of all to have a safe, inclusive, and respectful workplace and to speak up against and remove bullying and harassment from the dental profession. |
| After the signing, DHSV hosted a mandatory Respectful Workplace Learning Day for DHSV staff. The learning day introduced the revised ‘DHSV Way’ values and behaviours, provided the reasoning for the Respectful Workplace Framework, and outlined the consequences for inappropriate behaviours. The message from leadership was clear – ‘Here is the line in the sand. From this time forward, if you act against the values you will not get away with it.’ |
| The change presented multiple challenges. The CEO was labelled by some as a ‘man-hater’, ‘misandrist’ and ‘part of the woke brigade’. Some staff did not agree with the new standards of conduct and chose to leave the organisation. Those who pushed back were in the minority, and the DHSV leadership team stayed the course. |
| Over the next year, the organisation fielded numerous complaints about bullying, harassment, and other inappropriate behaviour. Staff felt they had been given permission to speak up and take a stand against inappropriate behaviour. They had the tools and support to do so and the confidence that management would support them. (Note: In July 2025, DHSV changed its name to Oral Health Victoria) |
| In America, Title IX is a statute that prohibits sex discrimination in education programs and requires universities to ‘adopt and publish grievance procedures providing for prompt and equitable resolution of student and employee complaints’. (6) Under Title IX, universities must ensure that someone who experiences sexual violence is cared for and given access to support services. |
| During a particular university assessment process, two students separately reported to Elizabeth and a teaching colleague that they had been raped at different university campuses many years prior. These admissions instantly triggered Title IX despite the rape allegations occurring outside of the statute of limitations – a specified window of time that a state has to charge the perpetrator. |
| Elizabeth and her teaching colleague were in unchartered territory having never dealt with a rape allegation before. While they felt daunted and overwhelmed, they were determined to follow the correct process and ensure that the students felt supported, heard and respected. |
| Elizabeth and her colleague immediately sought the assistance and guidance of the university’s HR department. They had clear and robust policies and procedures in place and provided advice and support throughout the process. |
| As per the university procedure, the students were approached in an empathetic and respectful manner. The focus was on delivering the outcome that the students wanted, which was ultimately to get advice. The students said they finally felt heard and appreciated the opportunity to share their story. The process gave the students a sense of closure and gave Elizabeth and her colleague confidence in the university’s values, policies and procedures. |
Conclusion
People are fundamentally good. Decades in the health care industry have shown us the absolute best in humanity. As health care leaders and educators, there is no greater honour than witnessing the outstanding dedication demonstrated by doctors, nurses and their support staff every single day.
People work in health care because they want to help people achieve and maintain optimum health. When you create a workplace free from sexual harm, you give them the best chance of fulfilling that goal. We all have a responsibility to ensure that the environment we operate within is physically and psychologically safe. When unprofessional and inappropriate behaviour is allowed to flourish, we don’t just fail one another, we fail in our duty of care to our patients and the broader community. When we create a safe, respectful and inclusive environment, everyone wins. People are empowered to innovate and find new ways to deliver high-value care. They work collaboratively to introduce the reforms our industry so desperately needs. They are able to thrive as leaders in their field, knowing that their organisation can be trusted to do the right thing when it matters most.
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