Healthcare and aged-care workplace violence: NSW workers compensation guide

Healthcare and aged-care workplace violence can occur through striking, kicking, biting, scratching, spitting or grabbing during care and threats or intimidation by a patient, resident, visitor or colleague. The incident history should identify the task, equipment, location and sequence of events rather than relying on the job title alone.

People commonly exposed include nurses, doctors, allied health and assistants in nursing and aged-care, disability and hospital support workers. Employment records should identify each person's task, employer and position in the work area when the incident occurred.

Medical records after a healthcare and aged-care workplace violence may identify hand, shoulder, back, head, facial, bite or fracture injury and psychological injury after acute or repeated violence. Each diagnosis should be linked to the event or exposure and to the worker's actual functional change.

After a healthcare and aged-care workplace violence, immediate reporting and safety records may include clinical and WHS incident reports and behaviour alert, care plan and risk record where lawfully accessible. These records can establish what was known at the time without requiring the worker to repeatedly recount a traumatic event.

• Roster, staffing, duress and security response.
• Witness, police and supervisor records.

For a healthcare and aged-care workplace violence, the first evidence to preserve includes prior aggression and hazard reports and de-escalation, restraint and patient-handling procedures. It is most useful when dates, people, equipment, duties and later medical histories tell a consistent account.

• Ward, room or home-visit allocation.
• Medical and psychological treatment evidence.

Medical and psychological evidence after a healthcare and aged-care workplace violence may include physical injury, infection and specialist evidence and psychological diagnosis and functional assessment. A diagnosis alone may not answer causation or capacity: the records should explain the work event, symptoms, treatment and practical restrictions.

• Capacity restrictions for clinical contact, ward, shift and lone work.
• Rehabilitation and failed return records.

After a healthcare and aged-care workplace violence, an insurer may dispute violence is minimised as inherent in the role and staffing or prior hazard evidence is missing. The written decision should be answered with evidence directed to those stated reasons.

Physical injury, infection and specialist evidence. Psychological diagnosis and functional assessment. If treatment is disputed after a healthcare and aged-care workplace violence, the request should explain the accepted diagnosis, expected functional benefit and reasonable alternatives.

Work capacity after a healthcare and aged-care workplace violence may turn on direct care, behaviour-response, night shift and lone-work exposure and manual handling and physical restrictions. Proposed duties must be compared with the real task demands and the worker's ability to sustain them for the proposed hours.

A lasting physical injury is assessed under the NSW method for the affected body system only after the condition is sufficiently stable. The event label does not predict a WPI percentage. Primary psychological impairment is assessed separately under the NSW psychiatric impairment method when the condition is permanent and the legal pathway is established. Diagnosis alone does not determine WPI. Any WPI assessment after a healthcare and aged-care workplace violence occurs after stabilisation under the NSW method for the accepted body system; the accident or surgery alone does not determine a percentage.

A primary psychological injury is the psychological condition said to arise directly from workplace events. For claims first notified on or after 1 July 2026, the event must fit a relevant-event category and satisfy the additional connection and causation requirements. A secondary psychological injury arises as a consequence of a physical injury, for example depression associated with pain, surgery or loss of mobility after an assault injury. The 2026 primary-injury reforms do not apply to secondary psychological injuries in the same way. The distinction depends on medical causation and the accepted injury history, not simply on which symptoms were noticed first.

A police, SafeWork, workplace, discrimination, Fair Work or protective-order process may exist alongside workers compensation. Those processes have different purposes and do not decide workers compensation automatically. A civil, victims-support or other claim may require separate advice depending on the person involved and circumstances. It should not be described as part of workers compensation without checking eligibility. These issues are separate from workers compensation and depend on the particular facts.

For a healthcare and aged-care workplace violence, assistance may involve identify the event category, incident date and claim pathway before responding to an insurer and organise incident, safety, medical, psychological and capacity evidence without circulating unnecessary private material. The purpose is to identify the disputed decision and the evidence needed for the next step, not to promise an outcome.