A survey of health workers, including nurses, doctors and community service workers, has found that they are less confident about their workplace safety than construction workers.

 

The findings about key workplace attitudes come from a five-year study of over 8,000 workers by the University of Sydney in conjunction with the Australian Research Council and Unions NSW.

 

Sydney University research director, Professor John Buchanan, said that the findings fly in the face of common misconceptions on workplace safety.

 

"I think there's a stereotype about what an unsafe workplace is - it's a coal mine which is going to fall on top of people, or they're going to get poisoning of some kind, or fall off a multi-storey building," Professor Buchanan said.

"But the hazards of work are far more subtle these days."

 

The findings show that a quarter of health professionals feel physically unsafe in their workplaces, compared to 22 per cent of construction employees surveyed.

 

Being a nurse or doctor in the public health system is one of the most stressful places to be, but most people don't see it like that," he said.

"Most people don't realise that in the health system, it's the good will of those professions which is holding the show together, and they can't do it forever and their health is suffering."