Guidance for Occupational Health Services in Medical Centers

Russi, Mark; Buchta, William G.; Swift, Melanie D.; Budnick, Lawrence D.; Hodgson, Michael; Berube, David M.; Kelafant, Geoffrey A.

doi:10.1097/jom.0b013e3181bb0d7c

Cited by 16 publications

(15 citation statements)

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“…The disease appeared to be transmitted primarily by droplets and direct contact. In some hospitals, attack rates among health care workers were nearly 60%, primarily because of delayed recognition of SARS (Russi et al, 2009 In the spring of 2009, a novel H1N1 infl uenza virus, derived from swine, avian, and human strains, emerged and spread rapidly, primarily via droplet spread. In response, WHO declared a Phase 6 Pandemic.…”

Section: Infectious Diseasesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Health Care Work Environment and Adverse Health and Safety Consequences for Nurses

Geiger-Brown¹,

Lipscomb²

2010

Annu Rev Nurs Res

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Nurses' working conditions are inextricably linked to the quality of care that is provided to patients and patients' safety. These same working conditions are associated with health and safety outcomes for nurses and other health care providers. This chapter describes aspects of the nursing work environment that have been linked to hazards and adverse exposures for nurses, as well as the most common health and safety outcomes of nursing work. We include studies from 2000 to the present by nurse researchers, studies of nurses as subjects, and studies of workers under similar working conditions that could translate to nurses' work environment. We explore a number of work organization factors including shift work and extended work hours, safety climate and culture, teamwork, and communication. We also describe environmental hazards, including chemical hazards (e.g., waste anesthetics, hazardous drugs, cleaning compounds) and airborne and bloodborne pathogen exposure. Nurses' health and safety outcomes include physical (e.g., musculoskeletal disorders, gastrointestinal, slips, trips and falls, physical assault) and psychosocial outcomes (e.g., burnout, work-family conflict). Finally, we present recommendations for future research to further protect nurses and all health care workers from a range of hazardous working conditions.

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Section: Infectious Diseasesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Health Care Work Environment and Adverse Health and Safety Consequences for Nurses

Geiger-Brown¹,

Lipscomb²

2010

Annu Rev Nurs Res

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“…Nonetheless, in a low threshold service the application of barriers might create a potential conflict between ease of access, confidentiality and safety [16]. Due to the symbolic function of space and barriers, glass partitions might adversely affect patient-staff relationships, exacerbate violence and increase staff fearfulness [17,18]. This needs further exploration.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Monitoring systems are highly recommended to prevent occupational violence and consequences thereof [1,16,18], and seemed to be prevalent at the EPCCs. However, the preparation for negative incidents through training was less common.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the preparation for negative incidents through training was less common. Violence-prevention training is deemed important and useful to prevent workplace violence in the health sector [18-20], and can probably be made available to all relevant staff independent of the size of the institution.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Having an alarm system to alert colleagues or others in the event of a problem is strongly recommended [18,19], and should possibly be a minimum recommendation. Four per cent of the EPCCs had no alert system, which seriously restricts the workers’ ability to summon help when needed.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Safety measures to prevent workplace violence in emergency primary care centres–a cross-sectional study

Morken

Johansen

2013

BMC Health Serv Res

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BackgroundEmployees in emergency primary care centres (EPCC) have raised personal safety as an issue. Despite a high risk of experiencing workplace violence at EPCCs in Norway, knowledge regarding applied preventive measures is limited. The description of existing safety measures is an important prerequisite to evaluate and make guidelines for the improvement of preventive practices on a national level. The objective of this study was to investigate to which extent general practitioners work alone in EPCCs in Norway, and to estimate the prevalence of other preventive measures against workplace violence.MethodsA survey was sent to the managers of all 210 registered EPCCs in Norway. The questionnaire included 22 items on safety measures, including available staff, architecture and outfitting of the reception and consulting rooms, and the availability of electronic safety systems and training or monitoring systems. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics. Differences between EPCCs staffed by one general practitioner alone and EPCCs with more health personnel on duty were explored.ResultsSixty-one (30%) of the 203 participating EPCCs had more than one person on duty round-the-clock. These EPCCs reported the application of a significantly higher number of safety measures compared to the EPCCs with only one general practitioner on duty during some or part of the 24 hours. Examples of safety measures being more common in highly staffed EPCCs were automatic door locks (p < 0.001), arrangement of furniture in the consulting room ensuring that the patient is not seated between the clinician and the exit (p = 0.014), the possibility of bringing an extra person on emergency call-outs or home visits when needed for security reasons (p = 0.014), and having organised training regarding violence (p < 0.001).ConclusionThis study shows considerable differences between Norwegian EPCCs regarding applied preventive measures, and a higher prevalence of such measures in EPCCs staffed with several health personnel around-the-clock. More research is needed to understand the reasons for, and the effects of, these differences.

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