A California hospital, clinic or agency must protect nurses from sexual harassment by patients, visitors, physicians, managers and coworkers. A patient's illness does not cancel that duty, because the law asks what your employer did once it knew. A physician does not have to be a hospital employee for the hospital to be responsible. You have three years to file a complaint with the state.
This page is for registered nurses, licensed vocational nurses, nurse practitioners, certified nursing assistants, medical assistants, technicians, travelers, home health workers and nursing students. It covers patients and their families, physicians, managers, the health care violence prevention rule, your license, retaliation, and what to do next.
The short answer
- Patients are covered. Your employer is responsible for harassment by a patient when a supervisor knew or should have known about it and the employer failed to take immediate and appropriate corrective action.
- A diagnosis is not a defense for the employer. Dementia, delirium or a psychiatric condition may explain a patient's behavior. It does not excuse an employer that knew and did nothing.
- Physicians are covered, employed or not. A hospital answers for a staff physician's harassment once it knows. When the physician owns the practice or supervises you, the employer is liable whether or not anyone else knew.
- You can call the police. In a hospital, a nursing facility or home health, your employer may not stop you from calling law enforcement when a violent incident occurs, and may not punish you for it.
- Stepping away the right way is not abandonment. Telling your charge nurse and handing off care is the notice the nursing board's advisory describes.
- Retaliation is illegal. That includes worse assignments, canceled shifts, a "do not return" label, a sudden write-up and a threat to your license.
- You have three years. That is the deadline to file with the California Civil Rights Department. Some claims against public and federal employers have much shorter deadlines.
Why health care sees so much of it
Nursing is hands-on work. Much of it happens alone with a patient, behind a door or a curtain, often at night. Patients may be confused, medicated, intoxicated or frightened, and families are under strain. Some of the most influential people in the building, the physicians who bring in patients, are often not on the hospital's payroll.
In 2016 a federal task force on workplace harassment listed twelve conditions that make harassment more likely. Several of them describe health care:
- Reliance on client satisfaction. Patients and families are the clients, and facilities care a great deal about keeping them satisfied.
- Significant power disparities. A physician and a new graduate nurse do not stand on equal ground. Neither do a director and a per diem aide.
- "High value" employees. A surgeon or specialist who brings in patients can be treated as too valuable to correct.
- Isolated workplaces. A patient room at night, a home visit and a small clinic all leave a worker alone with few witnesses.
- Decentralized workplaces. A unit, a satellite clinic or a patient's home can be far from the administrators who write the policies.
The same task force found that about three out of four people who experienced harassment never told a supervisor, a manager or a union representative.
California law rejects the idea that some jobs come with harassment built in. Government Code section 12923 says the legal standard for sexual harassment should not vary by type of workplace. It adds that it is irrelevant that an occupation may have seen more sexual commentary or conduct in the past.
There is a real line here, and nurses know it better than anyone. Care means seeing and touching bodies, and a patient who is undressed for an exam or a procedure is part of the work. A patient who makes sexual comments, grabs you, exposes their body on purpose or asks for sexual contact is not.
| Who | When the employer is liable | Keep in mind |
|---|---|---|
| A patient | When a supervisor knew or should have known and the employer failed to take immediate and appropriate corrective action | The patient's condition affects which steps are reasonable. It does not remove the duty to act |
| A family member or visitor | The same rule | A facility controls who visits and can restrict or remove a visitor |
| A staff physician the hospital does not employ | The same rule, with the hospital's control over the physician weighed | Privileges and conduct rules run through the hospital and its medical staff |
| A physician who owns or runs the practice where you work | Whether or not anyone else knew | The harassment law applies to an employer with one employee |
| A nurse manager, director or house supervisor, or a charge nurse with real authority | Whether or not higher management knew | What counts is authority to assign, discipline or direct work using independent judgment |
| A coworker | When a supervisor knew or should have known and the employer failed to act | The coworker is personally liable too |
| A vendor, contractor, registry worker or student | The same knew-or-should-have-known rule | Report it the same way you would report anyone else |
Harassment by patients, families and visitors
California's Fair Employment and Housing Act makes an employer responsible for sexual harassment by people who do not work for it. The employer is liable when it, or its agents or supervisors, knew or should have known about the conduct and failed to take immediate and appropriate corrective action. Courts weigh how much control the employer had over the person, and any other legal responsibility it had for that person's conduct.
The leading California case is about a nurse. In Carter v. California Department of Veterans Affairs, a nurse at a state-run residential facility for veterans said a resident created a hostile work environment. A Court of Appeal ruled that the Act did not make employers answerable for harassment by clients. The Legislature then amended the statute to say that it does. In 2006 the California Supreme Court held that the amendment clarified what the law already was, and it sent the case back to be decided under that rule.
A hospital cannot simply show a patient the door, but it has real control over a patient's stay. It decides who is assigned, how many staff enter the room, what the care plan says, whether security is present and who may visit.
What counts. Conduct like this, when it is unwelcome:
- Sexual comments about your body, or about what the patient wants to do to you
- Requests for sex, dates or sexual touching
- Grabbing, groping, kissing, or pulling you onto the bed
- Deliberate exposure or masturbation in front of you
- Sexual gestures, or pornography played or shown to you
- Following you, waiting for you, or trying to reach you outside work
- Threats of sexual violence
The conduct has to be severe or pervasive. One offhand remark usually is not enough. A single serious incident can be, and section 12923 says so.
When the employer knew or should have known. Any of these is enough:
- You told a charge nurse, a supervisor or a manager.
- You filed an incident report.
- A supervisor saw or heard it.
- Other staff reported the same patient earlier.
- Charge nurses or managers knew about the behavior from handoff reports or the chart.
Earlier reports matter even when you did not make them. In M.F. v. Pacific Pearl Hotel Management LLC, decided in 2017, a California court let a hotel housekeeper's claim go forward where managers knew a trespasser was propositioning housekeepers and the housekeeper was then assaulted. The housekeeper had never complained about the trespasser before. The hotel's knowledge was enough.
| Step | What it looks like | Keep in mind |
|---|---|---|
| Set limits | A manager, a physician or the charge nurse tells the patient the behavior stops now, sometimes with a written behavior agreement | It should come from someone with authority, and not only from the nurse being targeted |
| Change the assignment | Another nurse takes the patient, or the assignment rotates | It should not cost you hours, pay or your unit, and the next nurse needs protection too |
| Two-person care | A second staff member or a chaperone every time someone enters the room | The plan belongs in writing where every shift will see it |
| Flag the risk | A warning at every handoff and in the care plan | The health care violence rule calls for communication between shifts and units |
| Involve the treatment team | The physician reviews anything treatable that may be driving the behavior | For a patient who cannot control the behavior, this is often the first step |
| Add security or a sitter | Security rounds, a sitter, or a room near the nurses' station | Staffing is one of the fixes the violence rule names |
| Restrict a visitor | A family member is warned, limited to certain hours, escorted or removed | Visiting is something the facility manages |
| Move the patient | A different room, a different unit, or a facility better suited to the behavior | Medical and legal limits apply to transfers and discharges, which is why the other steps matter |
| Call the police | For sexual battery, exposure, threats or stalking | Unwanted sexual touching can be a crime |
What a hospital may not do:
- Tell you it is part of the job.
- Discourage or refuse incident reports.
- Tell you not to call the police.
- "Solve" it by cutting your hours, floating you off your unit or taking you off the schedule.
- Keep assigning you to the patient alone with no plan.
- Blame your tone, your boundaries or your scrubs.
Families and visitors. The same rule applies to a patient's spouse, adult child or friend. A facility has more room to act here than it does with a patient. A visitor who gropes or threatens staff can be warned, restricted or removed, and security or the police can be called.
For the same rule in other kinds of work, see harassment by a customer or client.
When the patient cannot control the behavior
Some patients who grab or say sexual things do not understand what they are doing. Dementia, delirium, brain injury, some psychiatric conditions and some developmental disabilities can strip away inhibition. Many nurses believe they have no right to complain about a patient like that.
You do, because a harassment claim over a patient's conduct is a claim about your employer and not about the patient. The statute asks whether the employer knew or should have known, and whether it took immediate and appropriate corrective action. It does not ask whether the patient is to blame, and harassing conduct does not have to be motivated by sexual desire.
California courts have not set a special rule for patients who lack capacity. Federal courts that have faced the question have looked at the employer's response. In Turnbull v. Topeka State Hospital, a psychologist was sexually assaulted by a patient at a state psychiatric hospital. A federal appeals court held in 2001 that a hospital can be liable for a hostile environment a patient creates if it knew or should have known of the danger and failed to respond reasonably. The court refused to treat the danger as a risk the employee accepted by taking the job. It looked at staffing levels, whether treatment rooms were visible, training, and whether alarms worked. That case comes from outside California and does not bind California courts, but it shows how the reasoning runs.
Reasonable steps for a patient who cannot control the behavior:
- A care plan that names the behavior and says how staff should respond
- Two-person care for bathing, toileting and other close contact
- A warning at every handoff, so that no one walks in unprepared
- A physician's review of anything treatable that may be driving the behavior
- A room near the nurses' station, a sitter, or security rounds
- Rotating the assignment so one person does not carry it every shift
- A move to a unit or facility equipped for the behavior, when that is medically appropriate
The law does not expect an employer to cure the patient. It expects the employer to act promptly, to keep acting when the first step does not work, and not to leave one nurse to absorb it.
Harassment by physicians
Many physicians who work in California hospitals are not hospital employees. They belong to the medical staff, or to a medical group that contracts with the hospital. That does not put them outside the law.
The hospital is still responsible. A physician who is not the hospital's employee falls under the same rule as any other nonemployee. The hospital is liable when a supervisor knew or should have known about the harassment and the hospital failed to take immediate and appropriate corrective action. The control test favors the nurse. Privileges to practice in a hospital are granted and renewed through the hospital and its medical staff, which also set rules of conduct and decide who works in the operating rooms and on the units.
A stricter rule applies when the physician is your boss. In a private practice, a medical group or a surgery center, the physician is often the owner or your supervisor. An employer is liable for harassment by a supervisor whether or not anyone else in the business knew, and the harassment law applies to an employer with even one employee. See harassment by a boss or owner at a small company.
Conduct toward other nurses counts. In Fisher v. San Pedro Peninsula Hospital, a nurse's case against a hospital and a physician relied in part on the physician's conduct toward other nurses. The Court of Appeal held in 1989 that harassment of other people can support a hostile environment claim when the plaintiff personally witnessed it in the plaintiff's immediate work environment.
The physician can be personally responsible. Unwanted sexual touching supports claims for assault and battery against the physician directly. Whether the physician can also be sued under the Fair Employment and Housing Act depends on the facts, including who employs whom.
Where to report a physician:
- Your manager or director, in writing.
- Human resources or the compliance hotline.
- The medical staff office, the chief of staff or the department chair. The medical staff reviews physician conduct through its own process.
- The Medical Board of California, which licenses physicians and takes complaints from anyone. The board decides for itself what to investigate. Osteopathic physicians have a separate board.
A report to your employer is what puts your employer on notice. A report made only to a licensing board does not.
It is a patient safety issue too. In 2008 the Joint Commission, which accredits many hospitals, issued an alert warning that intimidating and disruptive behavior can foster medical errors. It urged hospitals to adopt clear processes for reporting and addressing that behavior. A nurse who is afraid to call a physician with a concern is a safety problem as well as a legal one.
The cost may not be put on you. Moving you off the service, off the shift or out of the operating room so the physician is not inconvenienced can be retaliation if it costs you hours, pay or the work you trained for.
Residents, fellows and medical students are usually handled under the coworker or nonemployee rule. The hospital must act once a supervisor knows.
Managers, charge nurses and coworkers
A nurse manager controls the things that make the job livable: the schedule, the shift, the unit, holidays, overtime, floating, who precepts, who takes charge, and the evaluation. Using any of those to pressure someone for sex or a date, or to punish a refusal, is quid pro quo harassment. See quid pro quo harassment.
When a supervisor harasses you, the employer is strictly liable. The California Supreme Court confirmed that in 2003 in State Department of Health Services v. Superior Court. It does not matter that the director of nursing or the administrators did not know.
Who counts as a supervisor. The Act looks at authority and not at job titles. A supervisor is anyone with the authority to hire, transfer, suspend, promote, discharge, assign, reward or discipline other employees, or the responsibility to direct them, when using that authority takes independent judgment. A charge nurse or house supervisor who makes assignments and directs staff may qualify. It depends on the authority the person really has.
Coworkers. For harassment by another nurse, a technician or anyone else with no authority over you, the employer is liable when a supervisor knew or should have known and the employer failed to take immediate and appropriate corrective action. The coworker is personally liable as well.
Why a report still matters when the harasser is a supervisor. The employer is liable either way. But an employer can argue that your damages should be reduced if you unreasonably failed to use a complaint process that would have stopped the harm. A written report takes that argument away. If your manager is the problem, state regulations require the employer's policy to give you another route, such as human resources, a hotline or a different manager.
Men in nursing are protected. The law protects workers of every gender, and the harasser can be of any gender.
For specific conduct, see sexual comments and innuendo and unwanted touching.
The health care violence prevention rule
California has a workplace violence rule written for health care. It is section 3342 of title 8 of the California Code of Regulations, and Cal/OSHA enforces it. It covers hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and other licensed health facilities, home health care and home-based hospice, emergency medical services and medical transport, drug treatment programs, and outpatient medical services in jails and prisons.
It matters for sexual harassment because much of what nurses face from patients and visitors is also workplace violence. The rule's incident log has a category named "sexual assault or threat," which covers rape or attempted rape, physical display and unwanted sexual contact.
What the rule requires of a covered employer:
- A written violence prevention plan that is specific to each unit, developed with the active involvement of employees and their representatives
- A way to report incidents and concerns without retaliation
- No interference with calls for help. The employer may not stop an employee from seeking help from emergency services or law enforcement when a violent incident occurs, or punish the employee for it
- Communication between shifts and units about patients who pose a risk
- An assessment of patient-specific risk factors, including a history of violence
- Correction of hazards, which can mean staffing, security staff, alarms and response plans
- Medical care, trauma counseling and a debriefing after an incident
- A violent incident log
- Training when you start and every year after
- Records kept at least five years, which employees and their representatives may examine and copy. The log leaves out names and other identifying details
Hospitals have two more duties. General acute care, acute psychiatric and special hospitals must report violent incidents to Cal/OSHA. The report is due within 24 hours when there was an injury, a weapon or an urgent threat to staff, and within 72 hours otherwise. Under Health and Safety Code section 1257.7, the same hospitals must tell local law enforcement within 72 hours about an assault or battery on on-duty hospital personnel that causes injury or involves a dangerous weapon. Other assaults and batteries may be reported. Knowingly interfering with that reporting is a misdemeanor.
Offices and clinics. A doctor's office, a dental office or a freestanding clinic is generally outside section 3342 unless it falls into one of the listed categories. Those workplaces generally come under the general workplace violence law, Labor Code section 6401.9, which requires a written plan, an incident log and training.
How this helps a harassment claim. The Fair Employment and Housing Act separately requires an employer to take all reasonable steps to prevent harassment. A hospital that had no plan for a patient it knew about, kept no log or discouraged reports is in a weak position to argue that it took all reasonable steps. A complaint about a safety violation is itself protected. See Cal/OSHA complaints and retaliation.
If you were assaulted:
- Get to safety and call security or 911.
- Get medical care. An injury at work is covered by workers' compensation, and you should give your employer written notice of the injury within 30 days.
- A civil claim for sexual assault of an adult can be filed within 10 years of the assault or within 3 years of discovering the injury it caused, whichever is later.
- See sexual assault at work and what to do after a sexual assault in the workplace.
Your license and patient abandonment
Many nurses stay in a room they should leave because they are afraid of being reported for patient abandonment. The Board of Registered Nursing has published an advisory on what abandonment means, and it is narrower than most people think.
Under the advisory, abandonment generally requires two things. First, the nurse accepted the patient assignment, which creates the nurse-patient relationship. Second, the nurse severed that relationship without giving reasonable notice to the appropriate person, such as a supervisor, so that others could be arranged to continue the care.
In practice:
- Leaving the room and going straight to your charge nurse gives notice. You have told the appropriate person, and care can be arranged.
- Asking for a different assignment and giving a handoff is not abandonment. The relationship is passed on, not severed.
- Declining an assignment before you accept it is not abandonment. The advisory says so directly.
- Refusing extra hours or an extra shift is not abandonment. The advisory says that as well.
- Do not walk out mid-shift without telling a supervisor and handing off your patients. That is the situation the rule exists for.
The advisory also says the board has no jurisdiction over employment issues. Your employer can still treat a refusal as a discipline matter under its own policies, and the board will not referee that. The retaliation law is what protects you there. A complaint about harassment is protected, and so is a request for a safe assignment. A flat refusal with no report is riskier, so put your reason in writing when you ask for the change.
A manager who answers a harassment complaint with "I could report you to the board" has handed you evidence. Write down the words, the date and who was present. If a letter from a licensing board arrives, talk to a lawyer before you answer it.
The advisory covers registered nurses. Licensed vocational nurses, certified nursing assistants and other licensed staff answer to other agencies, so check the rules that apply to your license.
Retaliation in health care
An employer may not punish you for reporting harassment, opposing it, filing a complaint or taking part in an investigation. That rule is in Government Code section 12940, subdivision (h). Your complaint does not have to be proven. A reasonable, good faith belief that the conduct was unlawful is enough.
Retaliation is common. In federal data for fiscal years 2018 through 2021, 43.5 percent of sexual harassment charges also alleged retaliation.
In a hospital it rarely looks like a firing on the spot. In Yanowitz v. L'Oreal USA, Inc., the California Supreme Court held that a series of smaller acts can add up to an adverse action when, taken together, they materially affect the terms and conditions of the job.
| What it looks like | What to save |
|---|---|
| Worse assignments: the heaviest load, the same harassing patient, no help | Your own notes of each shift's assignment with no patient names, the date, and who made the assignment |
| Canceled or cut shifts, and lost overtime | Schedules from before and after, messages about cancellations, pay stubs |
| Forced floating, or a move off your unit or shift | The date, who decided, what you were told, and who took your place |
| A sudden write-up, performance plan or chart audit | Earlier evaluations, the write-up itself, and the dates of your complaint and of the discipline |
| A "do not return" for a traveler or registry nurse | The agency's message, your contract, and what the facility said about your work before you complained |
| A threat to report you to a licensing board, or a report | The exact words, the date, who said them, and any letter you receive |
| Termination, or pressure to resign | The termination paperwork, final pay records, and anything said about the reason |
A second protection when patient care is involved. Health and Safety Code section 1278.5 bars a health facility from retaliating against an employee, a member of the medical staff or another health care worker for complaining about the quality of care, services or conditions at the facility. The complaint can be made to the facility, its medical staff, an accrediting body or a government agency. If the facility acts against you within 120 days of the complaint, and its responsible staff knew of the complaint, the law presumes the action was retaliation and the facility has to rebut that. Remedies include reinstatement, lost wages and benefits, and legal costs.
That section fits when your harassment complaint was also about patient care, for example a physician whose behavior keeps nurses from calling with concerns. It does not apply to long-term health care facilities, which have their own provision in section 1432.
More on this: workplace retaliation and will I be fired for complaining about sexual harassment.
Travelers, home health, students and public hospitals
| Setting | What is different | Keep in mind |
|---|---|---|
| Travel, registry and per diem | You may have two employers, the agency and the facility | Report to both in writing. A facility that directs your work can be treated as your employer |
| Home health and hospice | You work alone in the patient's home | The agency controls the assignment, and the health care violence rule covers this work |
| Doctor's office, clinic or surgery center | The harasser may be the owner | The harassment law applies with one employee, and the employer answers for an owner or supervisor |
| Skilled nursing and long-term care | Residents may live there for years, and many have dementia | The health care violence rule applies. Section 1278.5 does not, and section 1432 covers these facilities |
| County, district and state hospitals | The employer is a public entity | The three-year deadline is the same. Other claims usually need a government claim within six months, and the entity cannot be made to pay punitive damages |
| Veterans Affairs and other federal hospitals | Federal employees use a separate federal process | You generally must contact an Equal Employment Opportunity counselor within 45 days |
| Jail and prison health care | You may work for a contractor or registry inside a public facility | The health care violence rule covers outpatient medical services to people who are incarcerated |
| Nursing students in clinical rotations | You may not be an employee of the facility | The Act protects unpaid interns and volunteers, and a school that receives federal funds has its own duties |
Travelers and registry nurses. In Bradley v. Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, a licensed clinical social worker placed at a state prison by a registry was harassed by the prison chaplain. The Court of Appeal held in 2008 that the state could be treated as the worker's employer under the Act because of the control it had over the work. The same reasoning applies to a hospital that directs a traveler's daily work. The agency is your employer too, so once it knows, it must take the corrective steps within its control. A temporary services employer also has to give its own staff harassment prevention training. If a facility marks you "do not return" after you complain, that can be retaliation, and so can the agency's decision to stop placing you.
Home health and hospice. A patient's home is still your workplace. The agency decides who is sent, whether two people go, whether the caregiver changes and whether it keeps serving that home. You do not have to finish a visit while someone is touching or threatening you. Leave, call your supervisor at once so that care can be arranged, and call 911 if you are in danger. Follow up in writing the same day.
Nursing students. The Act's harassment protections cover unpaid interns and volunteers, and a student in a clinical rotation may come within them. Tell your clinical instructor and the school in writing. A school that receives federal funds has duties under Title IX, the federal law against sex discrimination in education, and it can change your placement.
Public hospitals. A claim under the Fair Employment and Housing Act against a county, a hospital district or the state follows the usual three-year deadline and does not require a separate government claim first. Other claims against a public entity or its employees, such as assault, battery or negligence, generally require a written government claim within six months. The University of California is handled differently, so get advice on the deadline. Do not let a date pass while an internal investigation is pending.
Federal employees. If you work for the Department of Veterans Affairs, a military hospital or another federal agency, the state process does not apply to you. You generally must contact your agency's Equal Employment Opportunity counselor within 45 days of the harassment.
If you are in a union
- You can ask for a representative. You have the right to a union representative at an investigatory interview that you reasonably believe could lead to discipline.
- A grievance is separate. A grievance under the contract and a complaint under the Fair Employment and Housing Act are two different processes. You can pursue both.
- Watch the deadline. Do not count on a grievance to pause the state deadline.
- Use an assignment objection form if your union has one. Fill it out when you are sent back to a patient with no safety plan. It is a dated record that you raised the problem.
- Ask about the records. Your representative can ask to examine and copy the violence prevention records, including the incident log.
What to do
- Get safe. Step out of the room. If you are in danger, call security or 911.
- Tell your charge nurse or supervisor right away, and hand off care. That protects the patient and your license.
- Put it in writing the same shift. Use your employer's email or reporting system. A few lines are enough: "At about 2:15 this morning the patient in room 412 grabbed my chest and made sexual comments while I was changing a dressing. I told the charge nurse right away and handed off care. Please enter this in the violent incident log and put a plan in place before anyone is assigned to this patient alone. Please confirm that you received this."
- Ask that it go in the violent incident log. Write down the report number, the time and who took the report.
- Chart the behavior if your employer's policy calls for it. Keep to what was said and done.
- For a physician, send the complaint to the medical staff office as well. Your manager and human resources should get it too.
- Keep your own notes at home. The date, the time, the unit, what happened, who saw it, whom you told and what they said. Leave out patient names.
- Ask for a safety plan in writing. Do not accept lost hours or lost pay as the solution.
- Get care. Report any injury to your employer in writing within 30 days.
- Find your witnesses. Get personal phone numbers, because coworkers change jobs. See witnesses and bystanders.
- Call your union representative if you have one.
- Talk to a lawyer before you resign, sign anything or answer a licensing board.
For what to save and how to save it, see evidence and text messages and how to document workplace harassment. Do not secretly record a private conversation. California law generally requires the consent of everyone in it.
Patient privacy and your evidence
Nurses are trained to document, and the instinct after an incident is to collect proof. Be careful about which proof.
- Do not photograph, copy, take home or forward patient charts. The same goes for anything else that identifies a patient. It can violate privacy laws and your employer's policies, and it hands the employer a reason to discipline you that has nothing to do with your complaint.
- Write your own notes without identifying the patient. The date, the shift and "my second patient" are enough for you to find it again.
- Record where the evidence is. The incident report number, who received your email, the shift, the unit, and which camera covers the hallway. A lawyer can obtain records through the court process, under a protective order that keeps patient information confidential.
- Keep what is yours. Schedules, pay stubs, evaluations, texts with managers, and your own written complaints if they contain no patient information.
- Ask in writing that video be preserved. Hallway, entrance and parking lot footage can be overwritten within weeks.
If you are thinking of leaving
A transfer to another unit is not a resignation, and asking for one gives up nothing. If you want out of the unit and not out of the hospital, say so in writing.
If you quit, the law treats it as a firing only when the employer intentionally created or knowingly permitted conditions so intolerable that a reasonable person would have had no choice but to resign. That is a high bar. Report in writing before you go, so that the employer cannot say it never had a chance to fix the problem. See can I quit because of harassment.
Unemployment benefits can be available when you quit for good cause. See unemployment after quitting over harassment.
If you do leave, finish the shift you accepted or hand off properly, and give your notice in writing. The way you leave should not give your employer an abandonment argument.
What a claim can recover, and how long you have
A harassment claim can recover lost wages and benefits, damages for emotional distress, and attorney's fees and costs. Punitive damages may be available against a private employer in serious cases. They are not available against a public entity. See how much a sexual harassment case is worth.
| Step | Deadline | Keep in mind |
|---|---|---|
| Complaint to the California Civil Rights Department | 3 years from the unlawful conduct | Required before a lawsuit under the Fair Employment and Housing Act |
| Lawsuit after the right-to-sue notice | 1 year from the date of the notice | The year starts when the department issues the notice |
| Federal charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission | 300 days in California | Federal law covers employers with 15 or more employees |
| Federal employees | 45 days to contact an Equal Employment Opportunity counselor | Applies to Veterans Affairs and other federal hospitals |
| Government claim against a public entity for assault, battery or negligence | 6 months | Not required for a claim under the Fair Employment and Housing Act |
| Civil claim for sexual assault of an adult | 10 years from the assault, or 3 years from discovering the injury, whichever is later | Separate from the harassment deadline |
| Written notice of a work injury | 30 days | For workers' compensation |
| Security video | Can be overwritten within weeks | Ask in writing that it be preserved |
For the full detail, see the sexual harassment statute of limitations.
Questions people ask
Yes, when a supervisor knew or should have known about the conduct and the employer failed to take immediate and appropriate corrective action. In 2006 the California Supreme Court confirmed, in a case brought by a nurse over a resident's conduct at a state veterans facility, that this rule covers harassment by patients and clients.
The patient's condition may explain the behavior, but your claim is about what your employer did once it knew. An employer is expected to take reasonable steps such as a care plan, two-person care, warnings at handoff, a sitter or security, and rotating the assignment. California courts have not set a special rule for patients who lack capacity, so the facts of the employer's response matter a great deal.
You can ask for a different assignment or for a second person in the room, and you should put the reason in writing. Leave the room if you need to, tell your charge nurse right away, and hand off care. A report of harassment is protected. A flat refusal with no report is riskier, because your employer may treat it as a discipline matter.
The Board of Registered Nursing's advisory says abandonment generally requires that you accepted the assignment and then severed the nurse-patient relationship without reasonable notice to the appropriate person, such as a supervisor. Leaving the room and telling your charge nurse right away so that care can be arranged gives that notice. Walking out of the building mid-shift without telling anyone is a different situation.
Yes. A hospital is responsible for harassment by a nonemployee, including a staff physician, when a supervisor knew or should have known and the hospital failed to take immediate and appropriate corrective action. Courts consider how much control the hospital had, and a hospital has a good deal of control over who practices there.
Yes. In hospitals and other workplaces covered by the health care violence prevention rule, your employer may not stop you from seeking help from law enforcement when a violent incident occurs, and may not punish you for it. Certain hospitals must themselves report an assault or battery on staff to local law enforcement within 72 hours when it causes injury or involves a dangerous weapon.
Often both. The agency is your employer, and a facility that directs your daily work can be treated as your employer too. Report to both in writing. If the facility marks you "do not return" after a complaint, or the agency stops placing you, that can be retaliation.
The patient's home is your workplace, and your agency is responsible once it knows and fails to act. The agency can send two people, change the caregiver, set conditions for continued service or stop serving that home. Leave if you are in danger, call your supervisor at once so that care can be arranged, and follow up in writing the same day.
The same rule applies to visitors. A facility manages who visits, so it can warn the person, limit visits, require an escort or remove the person. Report it the same way you would report a patient.
It is not part of the job under California law, and the legal standard does not change by occupation. Write it up anyway, through the incident system or by email, and keep a note of when you sent it. Discouraging reports is the opposite of what the health care violence prevention rule requires, and punishing you for reporting is retaliation.
No. Do not photograph, copy or take home patient records. Write down the date, the unit, the incident report number and whom you told, in notes that do not identify the patient. A lawyer can obtain the records later through the court process, under a protective order.
Yes. The law protects workers of every gender, and the harasser can be of any gender. Harassing conduct does not have to be motivated by sexual desire.
California's harassment law protects unpaid interns and volunteers as well as employees, and a student in a clinical placement may come within it. Tell your clinical instructor and your school in writing. A school that receives federal funds has its own duty to respond under federal education law.
At a county, district or state hospital, a claim under the Fair Employment and Housing Act has the same three-year deadline, but other claims against a public entity usually require a government claim within six months. Federal employees, including Veterans Affairs staff, use a federal process and generally must contact an Equal Employment Opportunity counselor within 45 days.
Do not count on it. A grievance and a complaint to the Civil Rights Department are separate processes, and you should assume the three-year state deadline keeps running while a grievance is pending. You can pursue both at the same time.
Three years to file a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department, then one year to sue after the department issues a right-to-sue notice. A federal charge is due in 300 days. Federal employees have 45 days to contact a counselor, and a government claim for assault, battery or negligence against a public entity is due in six months.
Many employment lawyers take sexual harassment cases on a contingency fee. The fee is a percentage of what is recovered, and no fee is owed if nothing is recovered. Ask how case costs are handled as well. A first conversation with our firm is free and confidential.
Tell us what happened
If a patient, a physician, a manager or a coworker is harassing you, or you were punished for speaking up, tell us what happened. We will tell you whether you have a claim and what it involves. Leave patient records where they are and bring your own notes. It is free and confidential.
(800) 371-3088 or send what you have.
Related reading: the sexual harassment guide, harassment by customers and clients, health care worker rights, whether you need a lawyer, sexual assault at work, harassment in a job interview, harassment in restaurants, and sexual harassment claims filed by men.
Sources
- California Government Code section 12940, subdivisions (h), (j) and (k): retaliation, harassment by supervisors, coworkers and nonemployees, the one-employee rule, personal liability, and failure to prevent.
- California Government Code section 12923: the standard does not vary by type of workplace, and a single incident can be enough.
- California Government Code section 12926, subdivision (t): who is a supervisor.
- California Code of Regulations, title 2, section 11034 and section 11023: quid pro quo and hostile environment harassment, and the required policy and complaint route.
- California Government Code section 12950.1: harassment prevention training, including temporary services employers.
- California Code of Regulations, title 8, section 3342: violence prevention in health care, including the plan, the incident log, training, records and hospital reports.
- California Health and Safety Code section 1257.7: hospital security plans, and reports to law enforcement of an assault or battery on hospital personnel.
- California Health and Safety Code section 1278.5 and section 1432: retaliation against health care workers who complain about care, services or conditions.
- California Labor Code section 6401.9 and section 5400: workplace violence prevention plans for other employers, and written notice of a work injury.
- California Government Code section 12960 and section 12965: three years to file and one year to sue.
- California Government Code section 911.2 and section 818: six months to present a claim to a public entity, and no punitive damages against a public entity.
- California Code of Civil Procedure section 340.16: time to sue for sexual assault of an adult.
- California Board of Registered Nursing, Abandonment of Patients, advisory NPR-B-01.
- Medical Board of California, File a Complaint. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Patient Safety Network, summary of Joint Commission Sentinel Event Alert 40, Behaviors That Undermine a Culture of Safety (2008).
- U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Select Task Force on the Study of Harassment in the Workplace (2016), and its chart of risk factors.
- U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Sexual Harassment in Our Nation's Workplaces, Time Limits for Filing a Charge, and Overview of the Federal Sector EEO Complaint Process. California Civil Rights Department, Complaint Process.
- Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, 20 U.S.C. section 1681: sex discrimination in federally funded education.
- Carter v. California Department of Veterans Affairs (2006) 38 Cal.4th 914. Yanowitz v. L'Oreal USA, Inc. (2005) 36 Cal.4th 1028. State Department of Health Services v. Superior Court (2003) 31 Cal.4th 1026. Turner v. Anheuser-Busch, Inc. (1994) 7 Cal.4th 1238.
- M.F. v. Pacific Pearl Hotel Management LLC (2017) 16 Cal.App.5th 693. Bradley v. Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (2008) 158 Cal.App.4th 1612. Fisher v. San Pedro Peninsula Hospital (1989) 214 Cal.App.3d 590. Snipes v. City of Bakersfield (1983) 145 Cal.App.3d 861.
- Turnbull v. Topeka State Hospital (10th Cir. 2001) 255 F.3d 1238. NLRB v. J. Weingarten, Inc. (1975) 420 U.S. 251.
Legal Disclaimer: This page is provided for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Employment law is complex and fact-specific. The information on this page reflects California law as of 2026 and may change. If you believe your rights have been violated, please consult a licensed California employment attorney to evaluate your specific situation.