Incivility and disrespect as a workplace hazard: a new framework from occupational health and safety

Disrespectful behaviour of physicians is increasingly recognized as a significant problem in health care, contributing to a dysfunctional culture, decreased staff well-being, and compromised patient safety. Regulatory approaches frequently focus on individual actions or conduct, treating such behaviour as isolated issues rather than hazards in the workplace. Such approaches are long and slow and fail to address the broader systemic impacts of incivility and disrespect. We advocate reframing incivility and disrespectful behaviours as workplace hazards, drawing heavily from the workplace-specific principles of occupational health and safety (OHS). This approach would encompass accurate detection of harmful behaviours; root cause analyses of workplace conditions that perpetuate incivility; and a hierarchy of interventions.