From Patches to Prevention

Abstract

the nurse can evaluate the employee's physical and mental fitness for the job and so help the personnel department with his placement. This brings up the problem of job evaluation and again the nurse plays an important role through her knowledge of working conditions and health hazards, as well as of the mental and physical requirements of the job. It becomes imperative then that the nurse make frequent visits through the plant so that she will be familiar with every operation. She will not only instill confidence in the employees by her observations and intimate k'nowledge of their working conditions but she will also be better able to interpret their problems to the physician. The industrial nurse must concern herself with absenteeism. Illness is the greatest single cause of absence from work. The employee's illness is, in the majority of cases, nonoccupational and a great deal of this illness and absenteeism can be avoided if the nurse conducts an educational program. This means periodic health checks, information and instruction on personal hygiene, nutrition, preventive medicine such as tuberculosis, cancer, diabetes, obesity, mental hygiene, et cetera, and an appreciation of the problems and psychology of every day living. Remember that the employee spends only one-third of his time under management supervision and the manner in which he lives during the remaining twothirds of the day very greatly influences his working efficiency. Production is the result of productivity; and productivity comes first from the efficiency of people, and second, from machines. Efficient people are healthy people, healthy in mind and body, and productivity is only as good as the human factor in production. The nurse is probably one of the strongest influences in strengthening the human factor in production and as a counselor she can get to the root of employees' physical and mental problems and do much to improve human relations between employee and employer. Too often the complicated problems of home life are transplanted to the job, definitely affecting production capacity. Many so-called occupation diseases give rise to serious mental and emotional repercussions and the nurse in many instances can be the first to notice these disturbances and provide for their correction. Absenteeism is frequently the result Caring for Injured employees is only one of many services which industrial nurses can help provide. Photo by Pickow from Three Lions.