An Occupational Health Services Initiative at a Women's Hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan

Abstract

This article describes the process of developing targeted occupational health services for the health care workers in a women's hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, as part of a larger project to establish an obstetrics and gynecology residency training program at the facility. The goal was to create a feasible and sustainable program to: (1) address basic health care needs impacting the ability of these Afghan health care workers to optimize learning opportunities; (2) decrease absenteeism due to illness; (3) decrease the likelihood of infectious disease transmission among staff, from staff to patients, and from patients to staff; (4) foster belief that a healthy and safe working environment is a basic right; (5) begin to collect preliminary health status indicators on health care workers in this employee population; and (6) serve as an adaptable program to expand to other Afghan health care workers.