Occupational Health Staff Research Articles

Lifting injury: a study of the occupational health perspective.

This article reports the results of a national questionnaire survey of 66 occupational health staff regarding the circumstances of nurse injury. Eight causative factors were identified as either a frequent direct cause or major contributory factor. Three circumstances were identified when nurses are most at risk of injury. The most frequently cited effect of the introduction of Manual Handling Operations Regulations (HSE 1992a) was more training and updating. Having an increased complement of lifting aids and more widespread use was the second most common.

1997 AICA Conference Report

The 11th National conference of the Australian Infection Control Association was held in Melbourne – May 7-9, 1997. As the recipient of the AICA scholarship A, I attended the conference and this is a report of the conference proceedings. The conference included many interesting, varied and topical subjects. This report consists of the highlights of information presented, divided into subject areas – staff occupational health issues, multi-resistant organisms, rare infectious diseases, and surveillance.The results of an Infection Control Practitioners survey were also presented.

ABC of work related disorders. Investigating suspected occupational illness and evaluating the workplace.

Doctors working in general practice or hospital sometimes encounter patients whom they suspect may have an occupational disease (for example, work related asthma, dermatitis, or fibrotic lung disease). It is important to follow up such suspicions because they may present opportunities for preventing disease or for compensation. Several sources of advice are available, but before others are consulted it is important to obtain the patient's consent, particularly if personal information is to be disclosed. Discussion with the patient is also recommended if any approach is to be made to the employer. View this table: Conditions that are commonly occupational If the patient's employer has an occupational health department the doctor or nurse there can be consulted in confidence. Occupational health staff are bound by the same duties of confidentiality as other health professionals and have special knowledge of the workplace and its hazards. If the company does not have an occupational health service, help can be obtained from the Health and Safety Executive. Their doctors, nurses, and inspectors have a statutory right of entry to all workplaces and respect requests for anonymity (though employers may ultimately suspect the source of a complaint). #### Sources of advice for doctors not working in industry One …

The provision of food and catering services in hospital

The supply of food to patients and staff is the responsibility of hospital support services. This article considers the provision of catering services and the production of safe food in hospitals in the UK. The responsibilities of food handlers and the role of the infection control team, the environmental health officer and the occupational health staff are also described.

Activities of an Occupational Health Organization in Japan, in Special Reference to Services for Small- and Medium-Scale Enterprises

This paper reports the activities of occupational health organizations in Japan, taking Nishinihon Occupational Health Service Center, one of the largest scale occupational health service providers, as an example. The organizations, at the request of enterprises, provide occupational health services on a profit basis especially for small- and medium-scale enterprises which lack the human resources and/or facilities to meet legal requirements on occupational health. The main services include: (1) providing various types of medical examinations for workers, (2) measuring work environment, (3) occupational physicians and occupational health nurses providing a comprehensive service. Among these services, legally required health examinations and work environment measurements are well served even for small-scale enterprises. Less effective are the health promotion and occupational health service by the occupational health staffs. In the future, these service will be better provided by a newly developed network system to support occupational heath activities in small-scale enterprises.

Audit of pre-employment health assessment in the National Health Service.

Seventeen (77 per cent) of the 22 NHS occupational health departments in the West Midlands Region replied to a postal questionnaire about pre-employment health assessment. In only 5 departments (29 per cent) was the decision whether to interview and examine a prospective employee dependent on the results of a self-administered questionnaire. All departments were asked how many prospective employees had been screened and how many rejected/restricted over a 2 week period. Departments which interviewed/examined all prospective employees tended to have higher rejection/restriction rates than departments operating a selective policy: 6 (2.6 per cent) out of 232 versus 16 (1.4 per cent) out of 1140, relative risk 1.6, 95 per cent confidence interval 0.8 to 3.4, P = 0.31. In departments which did not automatically interview/examine prospective employees, the median proportion seen by nurses was 56 per cent, and by doctors was only 12 per cent. Within one NHS Region we have documented wide variation in what constitutes a pre-employment health assessment. A selective approach would release a significant amount of occupational health staff time.

Cancer at the Workplace: Health Promotion and Care Programs

The "Europe Against Cancer" initiative seeks to reduce the prevalence of cancer by 15% by the year 2000. This has stimulated an increased awareness of cancer by health care professionals. A training manual was designed to provide opportunities for workplace health care professionals in Northern Ireland to make an impact in the area of prevention and early detection of cancer. The training manual examines attitudes and knowledge about cancer and discusses relevant, effective programs for the prevention and early detection of cancer. It also seeks to enable the development of care and rehabilitation support programs in the workplace. The process of developing the training manual involving occupational health and health education staff is considered to be part of its success.

THE EAP – EMPLOYEE COUNSELLING COMES OF AGE

The growing use of employee assistance programmes (EAPs) from the US and Britain is reported. There often include employee counselling. Welfare officers, occupational health staff and even managers have been counselling for many years, usually intuitively but increasing demands for higher performance at work, coupled with complex social and personal problems now require more expert counselling. This article assesses which problems are most suited for which types of counsellor, and evaluates the role of counselling within an EAP. Creation of a counselling culture in a firm is related to corporate performance.

Occupational information in occupational medicine

The International Classification of Diseases popularly referred to as 'ICD' has significantly improved accessibility to and promoted distribution of medical information. In the field of occupational health, the use of a standardized occupational classification system is also necessary for similar reasons. Recording occupational information in a standard format, when routinized, will certainly result in the combining of such information with other health relevant data. However, the innumerable occupational categories prevalent in modern industrialized society cannot be encompassed by a single occupational health staff. The tendency of Japanese people to answer in an indirect manner to questions regarding their present occupation or job history complicates the situation. Because of these circumstances, the need to construct an aiding system to compile bits of vague information into a definite standardized job category was recognized. The computerized system under development focuses especially on a person-to-person interview where the interviewer is required to gather information on the respondent's job history. The system is designed to supplement the insufficient understanding of the entire occupation system, thus aiding in occupational health interviews. A description of a prototype is also given.

The practice of occupational safety and health--facing the twenty-first century.

As a result of the increasing need for the services of occupational safety and health staff, with the concomitant costs, on the one hand, and rapid developments in the field of microcomputers, on the other, it was felt that a new conceptualization of safety practice, integral with computer use, was in order. To meet this objective, a microcomputer software package for interactive use by all levels of occupational safety and health practitioners, was prepared. The experience has indicated to the author that this is a viable and worthwhile approach, giving promise of enhancing the performance capabilities of lower level staff, and saving the time and effort of highly qualified practitioners.

An Experiment to Test the Feasibility of Integrating Occupational Health Services into an HMO

rasaGw CCUPATIO NAL illness is a majorcontributor to total morbidity and mortality in the United States. It is estimated that 390,000 new cases of occupational disease occur annually and that occupational illness results in some 100,000 deaths each year. These figures may, however, understate the influence of occupational factors on health status (1). Former Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare Joseph Califano, for example, stated that 20% of future cancers alone might be associated with occupational exposures (2). As recognition of the significance and extent of occupational exposure has expanded over the past few years, consumer groups and representatives of the labor movement have begun to insist that measures be taken to prevent or limit exposure to toxic substances, and that the capacity of the health care system be enhanced to meet the needs of exposed workers. In 1970, the Occupational Safety and Health Act was passed to protect workers from job-related injuries and illness. No similarly organized federal or private program has been mounted to address medical care issues. At present, occupational health services are provided in an uncoordinated manner in a variety of settings. Large industrial firms may have on-site occupational health staff or may contract with specialized industrial clinics, hospitals, group practices, or individual providers to meet their medical needs. Small and medium-sized firms often find such programs prohibitively expensive. In many cases, the medical system has tended to separate occupational care from other family care services. Isolating occupational health services has served not only to fragment further the personal health

Acquired infection in the NHS and its prevention. A suggested code of safe practice for occupational health and NHS staff

Acquired infection in the NHS and its prevention. A suggested code of safe practice for occupational health and NHS staff