Time's Up Comes to Health Care

With the recent groundswell of the MeToo movement concerning sexual harassment and power inequity, it’s no surprise that industries across the board are reevaluating their working cultures. Health care is no exception and the recent Time’s Up Healthcare movement is gaining attention.

The movement began as a response to the Time’s Up Foundation’s widespread success at promoting safe and healthy work environments and calling attention to how power plays a role in harassment people experience in the workplace.

Time’s Up Healthcare’s website states a mission “to unify national efforts to bring safety, equity, and dignity to our healthcare workplace.” The organization, in partnership with organizations such as the American Nurses Association, American College of Physicians, and the Council of Medical Specialty Societies aims to call attention to the disparities in health care workplaces and the undue burden that kind of culture can carry.

When nurses work in an environment where they are concerned about their own safety or that of their colleagues, the quality of care they can give to patients can be disrupted. The distractions caused by an environment where sexual harassment is either accepted or present but expected to be ignored are enormous. Health care workers in those situations can feel the implications of that stress physically, mentally, and socially.

Instead of being able to concentrate on giving the best care possible, health care workers must constantly weigh the risks. They are required to take the temperature of their workplace and wonder what kind of retribution might happen if they speak up. The cost of speaking up could mean losing their job or even enduring additional threats.

Workplaces like this are entirely unacceptable. Time’s Up Healthcare is shining a spotlight on what’s happening and why it needs to change. The movement is hoping to also build a support network where people who are impacted by harassment at work can go for resources and direction. They also hope to promote an awareness around the issue and exactly the kinds of situations or scenarios that might fall under this kind of problem.

With that aim, the organization hopes to help eliminate this problem. Through education and trainings, harassment and power inequity can be challenged, examined, and eliminated.

Harassment is not okay. Nurses and other healthcare workers deserve better. Their patients deserve better. Time’s Up Healthcare is taking that big leap.