Healthy Work Environments Program

The Healthy Work Environments Program offers tools and resources to create safer and healthier work environments for Ontario’s health care workers and employers. 

Healthy Work Environments Innovation Fund Grant Program
Healthy Work Environments Innovation Fund Grant Program Applications for funding were accepted Summer 2009, and projects are underway to be completed by March 31, 2010. Learn more.

Tools and resources by category:

1. Workplace Violence Prevention  
2. Workplace Health and Safety
3. Respect in the Workplace

What are Healthy Work Environments?
A healthy work environment is a work setting that takes a strategic and comprehensive approach to providing the physical, cultural, social, and job design conditions that maximize the health and well-being of health care providers, according to the national Quality Worklife Quality Healthcare Collaborative.

Why are Healthy Work Environments important?
Implementing healthy work environments and a culture of safety for health care workers is key to ensuring quality patient care. Enhancing morale and reducing absenteeism can reduce adverse events, improve patient safety and support improved patient outcomes.

When workplaces are unhealthy, it can have a negative impact on your health human resources: 

• 28% of Ontario nurses reported they were physically assaulted at work over the past 12 months by a patient, according to the 2005 National Survey of the Work and Health of Nurses;
• Approximately 46% of Canadian physicians reported they were in advanced stages of burnout, according to the Canadian Medical Association Study on Physician Burnout;
• The average number of days of work lost due to illness or disability was at least 1.5 times greater for workers in health care than the average for all workers, according to Canada's Health Care Providers: 2005 Chartbook.