Frontline Hospital Workers and the Worker Safety/Patient Safety Nexus

Abstract

Previous work on the relationship between worker safety and patient safety has focused on nurses and physicians. 1 Safety climate and nurses' working conditions predict both patient injuries and nurse injuries, supporting the premise that these outcomes may be linked. 2 Less attention has been paid to other members of the health care team, including nursing assistants, orderlies, aides, food service workers, janitors and other environmental service workers, ward clerks, and others. (We use the term health care workers [HCWs] to include frontline hospital workers rather than "support personnel" or other terms that may unintentionally exclude them.) Engaging frontline HCWs in developing, implementing, and evaluating interventions to improve safety may improve patient as well as worker outcomes.

An Investigation of Healthcare Worker Perception of Their Workplace Safety and Incidence of Injury

“…Therefore, while the primary focus of this research was to evaluate the number of injuries occurring in different units, and the associated safety climate beliefs, it is an important next step to evaluate the number of days restricted and absent experienced in a work unit and to determine if safety climate perceptions are likewise associated. Findings may have potential application to occupational health nursing practice by guiding efforts to promote worker safety and realizing organizational cost-savings through reduction in injury-related loss of employee productivity (Sokas et al, 2013).…”

“…We acknowledge that different strategies may be appropriate depending upon the work environment (Sokas et al, 2013). Managers and frontline supervisors are directly responsible for the safety, health, and well-being of their employees in both direct care and non-direct care areas.…”

Ergonomic Explorations for the Safety and Health Improvement in Hospital and Healthcare Professions

“…In order to push overall safety improvements for both employees and patients across the entire hospital and healthcare ecosystem [31], a change in safety concept seems to be crucial to successfully keep up with the demands of this industry [21]. The supportive relationships for safety practices between patients and hospital employees cannot be dismissed.…”

Exploring Front-Line Hospital Workers' Contributions to Patient and Worker Safety

“…Finally, this article outlines the framing questions for a workshop that brought together representatives of labor, health care institutions, labor-management training partnerships, professional organizations, researchers, front-line workers, clinicians, and patients to explore the role front-line workers may play in hospitalbased patient safety, and also the extent to which workplace occupational safety may be linked to patient safety [5]. The workshop, held on October 25, 2012 in the U.S. Department of Labor, drew over 80 participants, including patient representatives, front-line workers, hospital administrators, researchers, clinicians, and members of professional organizations and unions.…”

“…Less attention has been paid to the potential role other workers, such as nursing assistants, environmental service workers, ward clerks and others, may play in promoting patient safety. This paper was prepared for a workshop that brought together representatives of front-line workers, patients, hospital administrators, researchers and others to understand how to better include these front-line workers in efforts to improve safety [5]. Workshop information, including presentations and other materials, is available at the website for the workshop [6].…”