Travel Nurses and Per Diem Staff: Who Is Liable for Harassment in SFV Hospitals?

Hospitals across the San Fernando Valley (SFV) increasingly rely on travel nurses and per diem staff to meet fluctuating patient demand, staffing shortages, and specialized care needs. While these flexible staffing models help maintain continuity of care, they also create a workforce that moves between facilities and often lacks the institutional support and familiarity afforded to permanent employees.

This temporary status can heighten vulnerability. Travel nurses and per diem staff are frequently treated as “outsiders” within clinical teams, excluded from workplace culture, mentorship opportunities, and informal support systems that help protect against mistreatment. That outsider dynamic can make temporary healthcare workers more likely to be targeted for harassment or unfair treatment—and less likely to report it for fear of losing assignments, damaging references, or disrupting future contracts. However, even short-term workers retain full legal rights and should be encouraged to document misconduct, report harassment, and take legal action when necessary, regardless of the length of their placement.

This raises a critical legal question in healthcare workplaces: when harassment occurs, who is responsible—the staffing agency, the hospital, or both? Under California law, the answer is often both. Through joint employer liability principles, staffing agencies and host hospitals may each bear responsibility for maintaining a safe, harassment-free workplace. Importantly, travel nurses and per diem workers are protected under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), which guarantees them the same rights to be free from harassment, discrimination, and retaliation as permanent staff.

“Outsider” Dynamics and Targeting of Travel Nurses

Travel nurses and per diem staff often enter hospital systems as short-term team members, which can leave them excluded from established workplace culture, internal communications, and informal support networks that permanent staff rely on. They may not be included in staff meetings, mentorship circles, or unit-wide updates, and may be treated as interchangeable labor rather than valued professionals. This outsider status can make temporary workers more visible targets for mistreatment—ranging from inappropriate comments and isolation by coworkers to discriminatory patient assignments or heavier workloads that permanent staff are able to avoid.

Within hospital hierarchies, this dynamic can expose temporary staff to heightened risk of harassment and unequal treatment, directly implicating travel nurse legal rights and California protections. Fear of retaliation is especially pronounced in high-intensity healthcare environments, where supervisors control scheduling, assignments, and evaluations. Travel nurses may worry that reporting misconduct will lead to reduced hours, less desirable shifts, removal from mentorship or training opportunities, or reassignment to more difficult or unsafe patient cases. Because their future contracts and references often depend on maintaining positive relationships, many feel pressure to tolerate mistreatment rather than speak out.

However, under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), temporary status does not diminish legal protections. Harassment by coworkers, supervisors, or even patients can still create liability when employers fail to take reasonable steps to prevent and correct discriminatory conduct. Both staffing agencies and host hospitals have a duty to ensure that travel nurses and per diem workers are treated with dignity and protected from unlawful harassment, regardless of their length of assignment. 

Joint Employer Liability for Sexual Harassment

In healthcare staffing arrangements, “joint employer liability” refers to situations where both the staffing agency and the host hospital share legal responsibility for an employee’s working conditions. This commonly arises with travel nurses and per diem staff, who are formally employed and paid by an agency but work day-to-day under the direction and supervision of hospital personnel. When both entities exercise meaningful control over schedules, assignments, supervision, discipline, and workplace policies, California law may treat them as joint employers—meaning each can be held accountable for unlawful conduct in the workplace.

In the context of joint employer liability for sexual harassment in California healthcare settings, both the staffing firm and the hospital may be legally responsible if they knew or should have known about harassment and failed to take appropriate action. Liability can arise not only from direct misconduct—such as a hospital supervisor making sexual advances or inappropriate comments—but also from a failure to prevent, investigate, or correct harassment once it is reported. For example, a hospital may be liable if its managers ignore complaints or allow a hostile work environment to continue, while a staffing agency may share liability if it fails to respond to a worker’s report, does not remove the employee from a harmful placement, or neglects to provide proper anti-harassment training and reporting channels.

Sexual harassment in hospitals can take many forms, often shaped by the fast-paced, hierarchical, and patient-facing nature of healthcare work. It may include overt conduct such as unwanted sexual comments, propositions, touching, or coercion by supervisors, coworkers, or even patients, but it also frequently appears in more subtle behaviors—sexual jokes in break rooms, comments about a worker’s body or appearance, repeated requests for dates, or inappropriate messages sent during shifts. In clinical settings, harassment may also involve misuse of authority, such as a senior physician conditioning mentorship, desirable rotations, or schedule preferences on compliance with inappropriate conduct.

For travel nurses and per diem staff, these behaviors can be compounded by outsider status, making them more likely to be assigned to isolated units or night shifts where misconduct can occur without oversight. Under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), this conduct is unlawful when it is severe or pervasive enough to create a hostile work environment or when it results in tangible employment consequences, and employers—including hospitals and staffing agencies—have a legal duty to prevent and address it promptly.

Under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), employers have an affirmative duty to take reasonable steps to prevent and promptly correct discriminatory and harassing conduct. In joint employment scenarios, that duty applies to both entities. Hospitals must enforce workplace policies, supervise staff appropriately, and respond to complaints, while staffing agencies must ensure their placed workers are protected, informed of their rights, and supported if issues arise. When either or both fail in these obligations, they may be held jointly liable for the harm caused.

Reporting, Protections, and Legal Remedies for Travel Nurses

Travel nurses and per diem staff have the right to report harassment to both their staffing agency and the host hospital, and in many cases, it is critical to notify both entities so that each is placed on notice and required to act. Under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), temporary and contract healthcare workers are protected from retaliation, meaning employers may not punish them through reduced hours, unfavorable assignments, removal from placements, or termination for reporting or opposing unlawful conduct. These protections apply regardless of whether the worker is permanent or temporary and regardless of whether the complaint is ultimately substantiated.

To protect their rights and strengthen any potential legal claim, travel nurses should take practical, proactive steps. This includes documenting each incident with dates, times, locations, witnesses, and details of what occurred; saving written communications such as emails, text messages, or internal reports; and following formal reporting channels at both the hospital and the staffing agency. Preserving this evidence is essential in litigation, as contemporaneous records can establish patterns of misconduct, prove that employers were notified, and demonstrate any failure to take corrective action. These steps can significantly strengthen a case in court by providing objective proof of both the harassment and the employer’s response—or lack thereof.

Working in a high-pressure healthcare environment is already physically and emotionally demanding, but when harassment is added to the equation, the toll can become overwhelming. Long shifts, life-or-death decision-making, and constant patient care responsibilities require intense focus and resilience; harassment undermines that stability by creating anxiety, distraction, and fear in the workplace. LGBTQ+ healthcare workers and temporary staff may experience chronic stress, sleep disruption, burnout, and even physical symptoms such as headaches or fatigue as they try to manage both their professional duties and a hostile environment. The emotional strain of being demeaned, isolated, or targeted can also lead to depression, loss of confidence, and moral distress—especially in a profession centered on compassion and care. Over time, these combined pressures not only harm individual well-being but can also affect job performance, career longevity, and the overall quality of care provided to patients.

Importantly, travel nurses have the same legal right to a workplace free from harassment as permanent staff, and dual-employer structures do not diminish those protections. Because these cases often involve overlapping responsibility between a staffing firm and a hospital, seeking legal counsel can be especially valuable. An experienced employment attorney can help navigate reporting requirements, evaluate joint liability, preserve claims, and advocate for the worker’s rights—ensuring that temporary healthcare professionals are not left unprotected simply because of the structure of their employment.

Conclusion

Temporary status does not reduce or limit a healthcare worker’s legal protections. Travel nurses and per diem staff are entitled to the same safe, respectful, and harassment-free workplaces as any permanent employee, with full protection under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA). When harassment occurs, both the hospital and the staffing agency may bear responsibility, and both must be held accountable for preventing, addressing, and correcting unlawful conduct.

To ensure meaningful protection, SFV healthcare systems must strengthen oversight and compliance practices—implementing effective anti-harassment training, maintaining accessible reporting systems, and responding promptly and transparently to complaints. Creating safe environments for temporary healthcare workers is not only a legal obligation but a necessary condition for quality patient care and staff retention.

Travel nurses and per diem workers should feel empowered to assert their rights, document misconduct, and pursue legal remedies when harassment occurs. Seeking the support of an experienced employment attorney can significantly reduce the stress of navigating complex dual-employer structures, help preserve critical evidence, and ensure that workers’ rights are fully protected while they focus on their demanding roles in patient care.