Free videos on hospital workplace harassment — prevention to remedy

Free educational videos to help hospital workers and managers understand the organizational culture of medical institutions and learn procedures for preventing and addressing workplace harassment are now available.

The Korea Labor Foundation announced Monday that it has produced a video series titled "Building a Healthy and Safe Hospital" and is releasing it through its workplace innovation platform starting Monday.

The initiative is a follow-up to a joint agreement signed Aug. 13 by six agencies — including the Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Ministry of Health and Welfare — to create safer, more desirable hospital workplaces. It is also part of a hospital-sector workplace innovation consulting support plan the foundation announced the same day.

The videos are designed to help hospital workers and managers grasp the distinctive features of medical institutions' organizational culture and easily learn the basics needed to improve that culture on the ground.

The curriculum covers three areas: the characteristics of medical institutions' organizational culture and organizational assessment methods; the concept of workplace harassment along with prevention and remedy procedures; and ways to improve organizational culture through workplace innovation consulting.

The videos also explain real harassment scenarios that can arise in hospital settings and the relevant laws, and guide viewers on how to build manuals and grievance-handling procedures for preventing and responding to harassment.

The videos are open free of charge to anyone interested — not just workers at hospitals participating in the consulting program. They are available on the workplace innovation platform website starting Monday.

The foundation is also expanding support for organizational culture improvement in hospital settings. Since Aug. 3, it has been running hospital-sector workplace innovation consulting, offering tailored consulting through specialized assessments.

By year's end, the foundation plans to produce and release a "Standard Manual for Improving Organizational Culture in Medical Institutions" together with the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Korean Hospital Association and other relevant bodies. The manual will be designed practically so that workers at medical institutions not receiving separate consulting can use it to assess and improve their own organizational culture.

"We hope these videos will prompt more medical institutions and workers to examine and improve their organizational culture," said Park Jong-pil, secretary-general of the Korea Labor Foundation. "We will link consulting, education and the manual to support real change on the ground in hospitals."