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Elaine Craig, Senior Research Assistant specialising in Violence, Abuse and Mental Health, Manchester Metropolitan University

The hidden assumptions that leave nurses exposed to sexual harassment

Dragana Gordic/Shutterstock

Three in five nursing staff and students who responded to a 2021 survey by Nursing Times and Unison said they had experienced sexual harassment at work. For many, it had come to be treated as part of the job.

More recent figures suggest the problem persists. In the 2025 NHS staff survey for England, 11.36% of registered nurses and midwives said they had experienced at least one incident of unwanted sexual behaviour from patients, service users, visitors, relatives or members of the public in the previous year.

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