Evaluating violence prevention programs in health care

November 2014: Drs. Chris McLeod and George Astrakianakis have received funding from WorkSafeBC to evaluate the effectiveness of violence prevention programs in health care.

The project will focus on violence in health care situations, which has become a major occupational health concern with health care professionals experiencing higher rates of workplace violence compared to other occupations. The project will build on existing research into effective violence prevention and occupational health and safety management, and will develop leading and lagging indicators specific the risk of violence in health care in BC. The study will be conducted in collaboration and partnership with Fraser Health and the Vancouver Island Health Authority, who will provide access to occupational health data and facilitate the piloting of potential leading indicators within their facilities; and, also with the BC Nurses Union. Other key stakeholders will be engaged through the establishment of a project advisory committee.

An analysis of violence incidence data from the Workplace Health Indicator Tracking and Evaluation WHITE™ database, a provincial-level occupational health and safety surveillance system for healthcare, will be undertaken. Consultations with the health authorities and with focus groups will enable the development of a set of leading indicators. A pilot survey will be conducted in several Fraser Health and Vancouver Island Health Authority units; including emergency rooms, mental health units and owned and operated long-term care facilities. The results of the consultations and the survey will generate a feasible set of leading indicators that will be used to create and evaluate policies and practices to address violence prevention in health care situations.

Learn more about our work with leading indicators in occupational health: Occupational health and safety practices survey

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Day of Mourning

April 2024: On April 28, 2024, workers, families, and employers will gather at commemorative ceremonies to honour the 175 BC workers who lost their lives last year due to workplace injury and disease. Join us as we reflect on those we’ve lost, and renew our commitment to creating healthy and safe workplaces for everyone. Whether you’re an employer, supervisor, prime contractor, or worker, you have a role to play in keeping the workplace safe. A public Day of Mourning ceremony will take place at Jack Poole Plaza in downtown Vancouver on Sunday, April 28th at 10:30 am, with the Olympic Cauldron being lit in honour of the day. A livestream of the event will be available at dayofmourning.bc.ca.

Are you a young construction worker?

April 2024: We are looking for young workers in the British Columbia (BC) construction industry to complete a confidential online survey about their current job/trade, working conditions that could contribute to musculoskeletal symptoms, and how these affect their well-being. Respondents will be entered into a draw to win a $100 Amazon gift card as a thank you for participating.

New paper: Does intra-provincial mobility matter as much as inter-provincial mobility?

January 2024: This paper uses residential and employer location from workers’ compensation data to identify non-mobile workers (working and living in the same region of BC), intra-provincially mobile workers (working and living in different regions of BC) and inter-provincially mobile workers (working in BC and living outside BC) to estimate differences in work disability duration. The findings suggest that work disability duration was longest for inter-provincially mobile workers, even after matching workers on similar characteristics. Differences were attenuated in some industries (e.g., natural resources and mining), possibly due to more familiarity with mobile workers, and/or greater ability to accommodate workers. Read more in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.