As the second-fastest growing sector of the United States economy, the healthcare industry employs more than 12 million workers dedicated to protecting the health of their patients. But who is responsible for protecting the health and safety of these healthcare workers?
The Danger Zone
Over the past decade, the rates of occupational injury to healthcare workers (HCWs) have continued to rise. From occupational hazards like communicable diseases, sharps injuries, infectious-fluid splashes, latex allergies, back injuries to violence and stress—healthcare staff members are constantly at risk.
In order to prevent or reduce exposure to these day-to-day dangers, infection control professionals must interface with healthcare personnel to identify potential risks, increase awareness of safety challenges, implement protective policies and procedures, and evaluate measures after they are taken. In addition, groups like the Association of Occupational Health Professionals in Healthcare (AOHP), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) are in place to promote and advance the health and safety of workers in healthcare.
But in order for infection control personnel and occupational health advocacy groups to develop better policies and practices that prevent work-related injuries, they must first understand what today’s occupational healthcare workers are facing—by looking at what ranks among the top safety concerns.
To achieve this goal, AOHP designed a survey to illuminate the top public policy issues of concern to its members. The survey, conducted in August 2006, examined the most common safety challenges faced by occupational HCWs—including bloodborne pathogen exposure, violence in the workplace, safe patient handling, ergonomics, bioterrorism/emergency preparedness, health promotion/wellness, respiratory protection and pandemic influenza—and asked approximately 340 respondents to rank the issues as very important, important, somewhat important or unimportant.
The results revealed that the top-three most pressing concerns for today’s occupational healthcare workers are safe patient handling, bloodborne pathogen exposure and respiratory protection. Safe patient handling and bloodborne pathogen exposure were both ranked as “very important” by 76.7 percent and 73.5 percent of voters, respectively, while respiratory protection was considered “important” by 52.1 percent of respondents.
