Safety Matters

Sprains and strains represent over 80% of all injuries experienced by Nova Scotia’s healthcare workers. If you were to combine the number of days people were off work in the healthcare industry in 2014, it would equate to 395 full-time employees for one year.

Healthcare in our province faces a complicated culture and we will be working with our partners to improve safety in this sector, as part of the Workplace Safety Strategy.

That is only part of the picture of time-loss injury in NS. Every year, more than 770,000 days are lost to workplace injury. That is about 2,400 working years. It’s the population of Digby, off work, for a whole year.

This is not in step with the Workplace Safety Strategy’s vision of being the safest place to work in Canada.

Our people are our most valuable asset. The best place for them to be is healthy, working and on the job.

We’ve made progress in reducing workplace injuries – in fact, a 30 per cent decline in the past 10 years – but there is so much more to do. Collectively, we must do all we can to keep each other safe at work. And when injury happens, we need to have measures in place to help people get back to the way things were.

Work is a big part of our lives, and of the life story of each worker in this province.

Not only is it about being able to come to work, it’s about walking the dog, taking the kids to soccer, meeting friends for coffee, or unloading the dishwasher.

Because the most important reasons for workplace safety, and return to work, are not at work at all.

Preventing Sprains and Strains 
Slips, Trips and Falls Prevention – Stories, Hazard ID, Tips, Resources
Back Protection Agents
Working to Recovery Blog
Direct Access for Sprains and Strains