Recognizing and labeling sex-based and sexual harassment in the health care workplace

Purpose: To explore how registered nurses (RNs) recognised and labeled inci dents of sex-based and sexual harassment in the Australian health care work place. Design: Qualitative, using 16 unstructured interviews with registered nurse s in Australia. Methods: Verbatim transcripts were analyzed largely by inductive analysis. Key categories were identified as themes or, concepts for analysis. Findings: RNs reported several indicators of sexual harassment, including t he invasion of space, confirmation from others, lack of respect, the delibe rate nature of the behavior, perceived power or control, overly friendly be havior, and a sexualized workplace. RNs rarely labeled harassing behaviors as sex-based or sexual harassment. Conclusions: Many forces reduce the likelihood that RNs will correctly reco gnize and label unwelcome sexualized behavior as sexual harassment. Recogni tion is associated with a variety of workplace behaviors that sometimes pre cede harassment. Implications for the health care workplace are discussed.