Barriers to reporting sexual harassment in healthcare settings: a literature review

Healthcare professionals are at risk of experiencing sexual harassment at work, which can have a negative impact on their health and wellbeing. This study aimed to explore the reasons why healthcare professionals may not report their experiences of sexual harassment, as documented in peer-reviewed literature. EBSCO, Scopus, JSTOR, Science Direct, Sage, Google Scholar, the Cochrane Library and DelphiS were searched to identify relevant articles published in English from Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, UK and USA. A concept mapping table was developed to assist with the search strategy and the Critical Skills Appraisal Programme Checklist was used to critique and synthesise the findings. A total of five articles met the inclusion criteria, although most focused on healthcare professionals in general and looked at wider harassment and violence, rather than sexual harassment alone. The main factors that influenced the reporting of harassment were the normalisation of inappropriate behaviour, fear of reprisal and lack of clarity around policies and procedures. Further research is needed into the factors influencing the reporting of sexual harassment specifically in order to develop standardised reporting procedures and training programmes to prevent these incidents, and handle them appropriately when they do occur.