Shaping Safer Workplaces

This Mental Health Awareness Month, BCNU is sharing member feedback about the workplace factors affecting psychological health and safety

Psychological health at work can be difficult to measure. Unlike a physical hazard that can be seen, the factors affecting someone’s psychological well-being can build over time and look different from one health-care setting to another. 

During Mental Health Awareness Month (MHAM) in Oct. 2025, BCNU invited members to take some time to reflect on their psychological health and identify workplace factors that could be contributing to psychological harm. 

More than 1,300 members from across the province completed a Psychological Health Self-Check Chart designed to help identify workplace conditions and psychosocial hazards that could result in psychological injury. 

This year, BCNU is sharing the data from those responses at a province-wide and a regional level. The union is looking at how the information can help support conversations about psychological health and safety in the workplace. 

“We asked nurses to tell us about the workplace conditions that impact their psychological safety, and more than 1,300 members took the time to do just that,” says BCNU President Adriane Gear. “These responses give us valuable insights beyond individual experiences and show some of the common workplace pressures nurses face across the province.” 

A province-wide picture

Last year, BCNU Occupational Health and Safety reps, Mental Health reps and Joint Occupational Health and Safety Committee (JOHSC) reps distributed hundreds of Psychological Health Self-Check Charts to worksites across the province. 
The chart was designed to help members recognize changes in mood, thinking and overall well-being, while also considering the workplace conditions that may be contributing to those changes. Responses were collected and compiled from across several BCNU regions, providing a snapshot of the psychosocial hazards members experience in their workplaces. 

Three prominent concerns topped the list: 

1. Staffing and workload pressures, including short-staffing, insufficient nurse-to-patient ratios and the pace and demands of the work. 
2. Verbal violence, which members identified as a significant workplace hazard.
3. Unsafe working conditions and physical workspace hazards, including hallway beds, overcrowding and other concerns related to the care environment. 

The findings may not surprise nurses who experience these pressures firsthand. But they show how consistently these concerns are being reported and highlight the connection between working conditions and psychological health. 

Psychosocial hazards can include excessive workloads, inadequate staffing, violence, unsafe working conditions, poor communication and other workplace pressures. Repeated exposure can affect psychological health over time, while a single traumatic workplace event can also have a significant impact. 

“When nurses are consistently working short-staffed, dealing with verbal or physical violence or providing care in overcrowded or unsafe environments, the cumulative effect of these working conditions can put nurses at risk of psychological harm,” says Denise Waurynchuk, BCNU Executive Councillor for Occupational Health and Safety and Mental Health. “Identifying those hazards gives us a place to start when we talk about prevention.”

A regional snapshot  

The provincial findings provide a broad overview of the psychosocial hazards members are experiencing, but the data also offers a closer look at how individual health authorities fare in building psychologically safe workplaces. 

For the first time, BCNU has a more detailed picture of the workplace conditions compromising members’ well-being in different parts of the province, including short-staffing, verbal and physical violence and working conditions that can lead to moral distress, like hallway beds, overcrowding and other workspace pressures. 

Reviewing the data at a health authority level can help identify common concerns and provide context for discussions about what may need further attention in each workplace and health authority.

Knowing that co-workers are experiencing common issues can also help members feel less alone. 

“This information helps members recognize that some of the challenges they’re experiencing aren’t isolated to one person or one shift,” says Gear. “They’re part of broader workplace conditions that deserve to be talked about.”

What can we do with the information? 

For JOHSC representatives, stewards and activists, these findings are expected to help provide additional context when discussing psychosocial hazards and considering prevention strategies or hazard controls. 

The information can also help shift conversations from individual experiences to the broader workplace conditions contributing to them. 

For example, if members consistently identify short staffing as a concern, the findings can help support conversations with employers about workload, staffing levels and measures that could reduce the impact on nurses. Similarly, concerns about verbal violence or overcrowding can prompt closer examination of where those hazards are occurring and what steps could help prevent or reduce them. 

“Our OHS and mental health representatives, JOHSC members and stewards can use these findings as a starting point for conversations in their workplaces,” says Waurynchuk. “Until now, we haven’t had a clear picture of these hazards through a health authority lens. Being able to see where these concerns are emerging gives us a stronger foundation for conversations around prevention and what can be done to address them.”  

Keeping the conversation going 

The responses collected during last year’s Mental Health Awareness Month represent hundreds of individual reflections on what it is like to work in health care today.

This year’s campaign is using that information to look beyond individual experiences and examine the workplace factors affecting psychological health and safety across the province. 

And while the provincial findings show common concerns, the regional findings provide a more detailed picture about where they are being reported. Together, they give members information they can bring back to their workplaces as they identify hazards and consider prevention measures. 

“This is about making sure members can see that the information they shared has value,” says Gear. “We heard about the challenges nurses are facing, and now we have an opportunity to use that information to support conversations about what safer, healthier workplaces should look like.” •
 

UPDATE (Summer / Fall 2026)