Harassment of Male and Female in Hospitals in Canada - Research Paper Example

Workplace harassment has not only been reported in health care settings but also in other sectors of the workforce. This paper explores harassment of males and females in Canada hospitals. Harassment of gender in Hospitals According to Ontario Human Rights Commision, “harassment connotes comments or actions that are unwelcome or should be known to be unwelcome” (Ontario Human Rights Commision, 2012). Other literature have defined harassment as any conduct based on age, disability, HIV status, domestic circumstances, race, colour, language.

religion, political, trade union or other opinion or belief, national or social origin, association with minority property, birth or other status which is unreciprocated or unwanted and which affects the dignity of men and women at work (Wi, 2009). Workplace harassment in healthcare settings has been reported as a widespread problem in most Canadian hospitals. Healthcare professional such as nurses, general practitioners and other medical staff do experience or have high chances of experience harassment in most hospitals in Canada.

Harassment of males and females in hospitals can take various forms such as physical, psychological and sexual harassment, one-off incident or subsequent and recurrent patterns of behaviours and among colleagues, between superiors and subordinates in health or among third parties (patients and visitors). Causes of Gender harassment in Hospitals Sexual harassment refers to “any form of sexual activity which makes a person or the victim to feel or appear uncomfortable” (Roach, 2010). The types of sexual harassments that female experience in hospital settings include gender harassment, unwanted sexual attention, sexual remarks and sexual coercion.

Sexual harassment is the most common form of harassment in Canadian hospitals and it is often perpetrated by male patients and co-workers. The forms of sexual harassment that can be directed to either gender in hospital settings include unwelcome physical contact, inappropriate conversation with sexual content, leering or inappropriate staring or whistling, inappropriate gifts, offensive jokes or comments of sexual nature, posting pictures of sexual nature in hospital settings especially in offices, comments about the physical characteristics of an individual and sexually suggestive acts (New Brunswick Human Rights Act, 2011).

In addition, sexual harassment in hospitals that is directed to people of either gender may entail proposition of physical intimacy, demands for dates or sexual favors and remarks about members of a specific gender. Nurses experience sexual harassment from patients and colleagues or from medical personnel from higher authorities, that is, sexual harassment can be committed by males with female victims, by females with male victims or same-sex sexual harassment (Roach, 2010). Women have bore the brunt of sexual harassment because they have traditionally occupied a lower status in the society particular in the workforce.

The same is replicated in hospital settings in Canada where most victims of sexual harassment have been women. Both male and female nurses and other medical staff experience harassment in Canadian health care settings although the level of endurance is different from either gender. Female nurses are likely to endure harassment from their colleagues or patients for a long term before necessarily taking further step and