an you imagine how it feels to be verbally or physically assaulted by the patients you are wholeheartedly striving to serve, or their family members? It's definitely not a good experience. It may even cause you to suffer from stress, and your work performance might be affected too.

The HA defines both verbal and physical assaults on employees while they are working as workplace violence. More precisely, the term covers: "Any incident where staff are abused, threatened or assaulted in circumstances that are related to their work, involving an explicit or implicit challenge to their safety, physical and psychological well-being or health."

Unfortunately, our statistics show that workplace violence is one of the commonest causes of injuries to our colleagues while they are on duty. And the number of such incidents rose by 130% between 2000 and 2008. In response, the Staff Wellbeing Team of the Head Office Human Resources Division is now producing a new staff training video entitled "Empathy Matters". It hopes this will equip our colleagues with the practical skills they need to handle workplace violence, and that it will serve to foster harmonious relationships between patients and healthcare professionals.

The Staff Wellbeing Team has also produced another video that targets the general public. In it, Dr Margaret Chung, Honorary Chairperson of the Regeneration Society, appeals to the public to recognise the roles of healthcare professionals and respect them. In addition, Mr Steven Ma, an artiste who had a family member who was a chronic patient, expresses his hope that the public will support our medical colleagues. Entitled "Promoting Trust & Harmony", the video will be screened in our hospitals early next year.