Health and Social Services

Taking better care of the care providers

Nova Scotia’s health and social services sectors include hospitals and health centres, long-term care facilities, home care, social services, primary care providers, and mental health and addiction services.

More people work in this sector than in any of the other sectors.

Almost 30% of all time-loss claims in the province come from this sector. The most common injuries or illnesses are:

sprains and strains
infectious diseases
workplace violence
being burned by chemicals
psychological hazards (bullying, harassment)
experiencing electrical shock

With the right safety plan, equipment, and training, all of these can be prevented.

In 2024, the health and social services sector in Nova Scotia saw:

4,415 reported injury claims

14,24 time-loss claims where the worker missed 3 or more days of work due to their injuries.

These statistics highlight why safety training and practices are so important. Use the information you’ll find here to improve safety for you and your workers.

The top 3 time-loss injuries reported for this sector in Nova Scotia (2022) were:

1,109 sprains and strains

161 respiratory (breathing and lungs) system diseases

66 concussions and brain injuries

Use these safety resources to protect your workers

Use this tool to identify where injury could happen in your workplace. You may be able to fix some hazards. For others, you may need to make sure your workers have the right training to do a dangerous job safely.

The Better Safety Better Care campaign provides information for workers on how to avoid injury at work. Employers can also download the Leader Safety Playbook.

The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety is a Government of Canada initiative that provides programs and services in English and French.

AWARE NS has programs, online learning, and other resources specifically for the health care and community services sector.