Prospects and retrospects of occupational hazards amongst healthcare workers

Abstract

Introduction and Aim: Several studies showed that exposed health care workers are prone to numerous workplace hazards. Safety measure implementation in high-income countries, mostly neutralize these risks. But in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), lack of resources and by-passing essential safety measures mostly increase the risk of occupational exposure to these hazards. This study attempts to map and synthesize the available research activities on occupational hazards among health care workers in India (LMIC) and to identify the research gaps and information policy. Methods: Amongst 190 female health care workers including nursing staff and other caregivers, this humble work attempts to quantify observational and/or experimental studies in various categories of different parameters namely, physical, physiological, biochemical, ergonomic and chronobiological aspects. Results: Several specific biological hazards including blood-borne pathogenic disease, psychological hazards (workplace violence, burn-out, job dissatisfaction), ergonomic hazards including musculo-skeletal disorders and chemical hazards including biochemical abnormalities (example, exposure to latex and anti-neoplastic drugs) were observed. Several unique cross-talks between parameters of different categories were observed. Implementation of risk reduction strategies was found to be sub-optimal. Conclusion: Most of the recorded hazards are of biological type (more than 52%). Occupational safety needs to become a priority public health issue for protection of health care workers in India and other LMICs. Much more research activities are needed to understand the magnitude and the cross-talks between different hazards of the concerned profession.