Nurses five times more likely to claim for work-related violence injuries

Nurses were five times more likely than other workers to make a claim for work-related violence injuries according the WorkSafe

WorkSafe Victoria. Picture: Supplied

Victoria’s health and safety regulator has identified occupational violence and aggression as a key driver of mental injury claims affecting frontline workers.

WorkSafe’s annual report reveals that mental injury claims accounted for 17 per cent of the total 34,694 new claims received in the 2024-25 financial year, representing approximately 5,898 mental injury claims.

This is a slight decrease from 2023-24, when 18 per cent of the 35,575 total new claims were for mental injury.

The Health Care and Social Assistance sector recorded the highest number of overall injury claims, with 6,326 new claims during the period.

According to WorkSafe’s data, 23 per cent of these claims were due to mental stress, representing approximately 1,455 mental injury claims in the healthcare sector.

The report noted that nurses were five times more likely than other workers to make a claim for work-related violence injuries.

On a positive note, return to work rates for workers with a mental injury reached their highest level in three years, with 60.1 per cent returning to work at 104 weeks, up from 56.8 per cent in 2023-24.

Overall, WorkSafe supported 26,060 injured workers to return to work in 2024-25.

Barwon Health reported improvement in its own facilities, with a 12 per cent drop in “code grey incidents” this quarter and an overall six per cent decrease compared with last year.

Code grey is an emergency response staff use to call for immediate assistance with actual or potential violence, aggression or threatening behaviour from a patient or visitor.

“Our staff are expertly trained to handle challenging situations but violence, harassment and bullying towards our healthcare workforce is unacceptable – everyone has the right to be safe at work,” a Barwon Health spokesman said.

“We continue to improve the safety of all healthcare workers through training programs and practical measures including security guards, CCTV cameras, duress alarms and electronic access control systems for doorways which help keep staff, patients and visitors safe.”

In response to the rise of threats and violence towards workers, WorkSafe launched a new public education campaign in April called “Don’t cross the line”.

The campaign highlights the cumulative toll aggression has on frontline workers, putting them at high risk of mental injury.

Originally published as Nurses five times more likely to claim for work-related violence injuries