What to Do If You Are Injured at Work

Watch this short video for an overview of the steps to take when you’re injured at work.

Follow these steps if you have a physical injury or illness because of work. 

Here about a psychological injury?

Not all injuries are physical. Find information on what do do when you have a psychological injury.

Step 1: Get medical help

• If the injury is serious, call 911 and go by ambulance to the nearest health care facility. Your employer pays for the ambulance.
• Tell your manager or supervisor as soon as possible, even if the injury seems minor.
• If the injury is a sprain or strain, go to a WCB-approved physiotherapist or chiropractor for an assessment right away—often same day. WCB pays for the assessment.
  • Find an approved clinic 

Step 2: Report the injury 

The best and fastest way to start your claim is to complete a WCB Injury Report with your supervisor. WCB needs this report to work on your claim.

• Ask your supervisor to fill out the WCB Injury Report with you—this is the quickest and most efficient way
  • Report the injury online in MyAccount with your employer
  • Deadline: By law, your employer must send this report to WCB within 5 days of the injury or of learning about it.
• Ask your health care provider to send a report to WCB—if you can’t report with your employer right away
  • This could be your physician, nurse practitioner, or—after assessment for sprain/strain—an approved physiotherapist or chiropractor.

Step 3: Work together on return to work

Most workplace injuries do not need to cause time away from work, especially when accommodations are made right away. If you do need to miss time from work, WCB is here to help you return.

Working together with a WCB case worker and your employer on a return-to-work plan is not only the most important part of this process, it’s the law. In Nova Scotia, both workers and employers have a Duty to Cooperate in the return-to-work process. This means, workers must work together with their employer to create a path back to work as soon as it’s safe to do so.

If you’re injured on the job, by law you must:

• Contact your employer as soon as possible. Talk about the injury. If it was preventable, work together to prevent it from happening again.
• Maintain contact throughout your recovery and return to work process.
• Consider how to apply your skills and abilities to work during recovery. Evidence shows that recovering at work is better for you on so many levels, including your mental and social health as well your finances.
• Provide WCB with any requested information about return to work.

Learn more about return-to-work and why it’s so important.

Learn what happens after you open a claim

Resources:

How transitional work can help in your recovery.