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Arhiv Za Higijenu Rada I Toksikologiju Mar 2015Work has numerous health and wellbeing benefits, but it also involves physical hazards and psychological exertion. Today the scale has tipped toward psychosocial... (Review)
Review
Work has numerous health and wellbeing benefits, but it also involves physical hazards and psychological exertion. Today the scale has tipped toward psychosocial factors. Workers' mental health affects their intellectual, emotional, and social growth, as well as work ability, productivity, and ultimately organisational productivity and competitiveness on the market. Even though companies may have an internal hierarchy that lowers stress at work, there are other formal and informal social processes that can affect (positively or negatively) the cohesion within the work unit. Safety culture of an organisation is a product of individual and group values, opinions, competences, and behavioural patterns that determine how occupational health and safety are implemented. Organisations that nurture positive safety culture understand the importance of health and safety and believe in prevention rather than dealing with consequences. Jobs that are stable, autonomous, and reasonably physically and psychologically demanding are far more likely to lower work-related stress and boost worker satisfaction. In fact, employee empowerment is one of the best ways to achieve good psychosocial health at the workplace.
Topics: Humans; Job Satisfaction; Occupational Health; Occupational Medicine; Organizational Culture; Stress, Psychological; Workplace
PubMed: 25781656
DOI: 10.1515/aiht-2015-66-2558 -
International Journal of Environmental... Jul 2021Given the extent of workaholism identified in the literature, it seems essential to consider effective preventive measures. The purpose of this article is to summarize... (Review)
Review
INTRODUCTION
Given the extent of workaholism identified in the literature, it seems essential to consider effective preventive measures. The purpose of this article is to summarize literature data on possible collective and individual preventive measures against workaholism, especially in occupational medicine.
METHOD
We conducted a systematic literature review in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines.
RESULTS
155 articles were retrieved in March 2019, but only 15 well-designed studies providing concrete measures to prevent workaholism were included. The various measures were classified using the traditional distinction between three levels of prevention. At the first level of prevention, workaholism can be avoided by implementing a protective organizational culture. The second level of prevention rather focuses on individual training and counselling to address the negative consequences of workaholism. Finally, the third level of prevention combines cognitive and behavioral interventions that enable professional and social reintegration of workaholics.
DISCUSSION
This literature review confirms the multifactorial origin of workaholism and the involvement of organizational factors, supporting the necessary contribution of companies in its prevention. This review also reinforces the growing perception of workaholism as a behavioral addiction. Occupational physicians play a key role in this preventive approach as they can influence both working conditions and individual care. The highlighted preventive measures seem to be not only favorable to workaholics, but also to companies.
CONCLUSION
This review provides field tools that can be used at the various levels of workaholism prevention. Nevertheless, intervention studies are required to confirm the effectiveness of the measures presented.
Topics: Behavior, Addictive; Occupational Medicine; Occupations
PubMed: 34281048
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph18137109 -
International Journal of Higher... Dec 2023Field trips are beneficial to students, because they provide experiences outside of the traditional classroom. Incorporating field trips into graduate programs can...
Field trips are beneficial to students, because they provide experiences outside of the traditional classroom. Incorporating field trips into graduate programs can increase students' exposures to real world experiences so that they can incorporate that knowledge as they complete their program. The purpose of the project was to collect and analyze graduate student feedback on 13 in-person interprofessional field trips focused on occupational safety and health. Data were collected through post-field trip structured discussions. Content analysis was used to determine themes. Five themes emerged from the data: Personal Value, Networking and Meeting, Health and Safety Planning and Policy, Environment, and Logistics and Planning. Field trips are valuable learning experiences for graduate students. The field trips in this study offered concrete experiences in occupational safety and health. Post-field trip, students provided feedback through structured discussions, which allowed for reflective observation. Overall, students found personal value in the field trips, observed health and safety procedures and policies in action, learned about various work environments, and provided input on the logistics and planning of field trips.
PubMed: 38077795
DOI: 10.5430/ijhe.v12n6p1 -
Occupational Medicine (Oxford, England) Jul 2020
Topics: Betacoronavirus; COVID-19; Coronavirus Infections; Fasting; Humans; Occupational Health; Pandemics; Pneumonia, Viral; SARS-CoV-2
PubMed: 32428236
DOI: 10.1093/occmed/kqaa103 -
La Clinica Terapeutica Apr 2022This work describes what are the regulations in the field of safety and prevention in the workplace, with particular regard to the legal medical aspects of the doctor in... (Review)
Review
This work describes what are the regulations in the field of safety and prevention in the workplace, with particular regard to the legal medical aspects of the doctor in charge of Occupational Medicine in correlation with ergophthalmological examinations. The main subjects of this treatment are the employees videoter-minalists. The first part of this work aims to analyze the compliance, as well as laws and legislative decrees governing the obligations and duties of the employer to its employees, regarding the compliance of workplaces and equipment with the instrument that are routinely used by employees videoterminalists. The discussion continues by focusing on the specific aspects of the ergophthalmological examination. It also describes the different phases of the eye examination, starting from the identification of the employee and then to the collection of anamnestic data, which are an integratedpart of the medical-legal act and are also a useful tool for the final diagnosis. The discussion of the various phases of the ergophthalmological examination concludes with a description of indirect ophthalmoscopy with its crucial points, which are important points in any ophthalmo-logical examination. Given the considerable diffusion and the great amount of tech-nological innovations in the field of display screens, we conclude the discussion with a historical overview of the display screens that have been habitually used by employees in their workplace, describing the mechanism that underlie their operation through some hints of Physics.
Topics: Humans; Occupational Health; Occupational Medicine; Ophthalmologists; Physicians; Workplace
PubMed: 35385044
DOI: 10.7417/CT.2022.2415 -
Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) May 2021The first clusters of SARS-CoV-2 infection were identified in an occupational setting, and to date, a significant portion of the cases may result from occupational...
The first clusters of SARS-CoV-2 infection were identified in an occupational setting, and to date, a significant portion of the cases may result from occupational exposure; thus, COVID-19 should also be considered a new occupational risk that both directly and indirectly impacts the health of workers. Given the significance of occupational-exposure-related infections and deaths, this study aims to assess the roles and tasks of occupational physicians (OPs) in countering the spread of the infection. Indeed, despite the OP's centrality in risk management in the workplace, its activity in the current epidemic context has rarely been mentioned. Three different databases (PubMed, Google Scholar, and Embase) were questioned using the main keywords "COVID-19" and "SARS-CoV-2" that were crossed, according to different needs, with the terms "occupational medicine", "occupational physician", "workplace", and "risk assessment" using, when possible, the MeSH database research. Additionally, a systematic research of the regulatory changes of workplaces health surveillance was performed on reference sites of international, European, and Italian authorities. Fundamental tasks and duties of OPs in the current COVID-19 outbreak are highlighted by examining their clinical activity and technical action. A risk assessment and management workflow is proposed, and medico-legal implications in case of infection at work are also discussed in the light of recent regulatory changes that clearly attribute to OPs an important role in safeguarding public health. The proposed approach can provide new instruments to contrast the spread of the infection as part of a comprehensive system response to the current pandemic, for which OPs are called to assume full responsibility.
Topics: COVID-19; Humans; Italy; Pandemics; Physicians; SARS-CoV-2
PubMed: 34065845
DOI: 10.3390/medicina57050479 -
La Medicina Del Lavoro Feb 2022In recent years there has been a growth in the role of prevention in controlling the disease burden. Increasing efforts have been conveyed in the screening... (Review)
Review
In recent years there has been a growth in the role of prevention in controlling the disease burden. Increasing efforts have been conveyed in the screening implementation and public health policies, and the spreading knowledge on risk factors reflects on major attention to health checks. Despite this, lifestyle changes are difficult to be adopted and the adherence to current public health services like screening and vaccinations remains suboptimal. Additionally, the prevalence and outcome of different chronic diseases and cancers is burdened by social disparities. P4 [predictive, preventive, personalized, participatory] medicine is the conceptualization of a new health care model, based on multidimensional data and machine-learning algorithms in order to develop public health intervention and monitoring the health status of the population with focus on wellbeing and healthy ageing. Each of the characteristics of P4 medicine is relevant to occupational medicine, and indeed the P4 approach appears to be particularly relevant to this discipline. In this review, we discuss the potential applications of P4 to occupational medicine, showing examples of its introduction on workplaces and hypothesizing its further implementation at the occupational level.
Topics: Chronic Disease; Humans; Neoplasms; Occupational Medicine; Precision Medicine; Preventive Medicine; Public Health
PubMed: 35226650
DOI: 10.23749/mdl.v113i1.12622 -
Arhiv Za Higijenu Rada I Toksikologiju Mar 2015
Topics: Occupational Medicine; Risk Assessment; Stress, Psychological; Workplace
PubMed: 25816309
DOI: 10.1515/aiht-2015-66-2629 -
Swiss Medical Weekly Jun 2022Switzerland's Labour Law and its Ordonnance on Maternity Protection aim to protect the health of pregnant employees and their unborn children while enabling them to...
STUDY AIMS
Switzerland's Labour Law and its Ordonnance on Maternity Protection aim to protect the health of pregnant employees and their unborn children while enabling them to continue to pursue their professional activities. Some companies encounter difficulties implementing the law's provisions. The Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, part of the Center for Primary Care and Public Health (Unisanté), has provided specialist occupational medicine consultations for pregnant employees since 2015. This study aimed to evaluate how well Swiss' maternity protection legislation is implemented by examining a list of relevant indicators measured during the occupational health consultation. The study also sought to investigate the consultation support provided to the relevant stakeholders and the adjustments made to pregnant employees' working conditions.
METHODS
Descriptive variables and indicators relative to the application of the Swiss maternity protection legislation for 83 pregnant employees were collected during the consultation's pilot phase (between 2015 and 2016). Descriptive statistics and cross-analyses of these indicators were made.
RESULTS
Most pregnant employees faced multiple exposures to occupational risks. Preventive risk analyses were rare. Few adjustments to workstations were proposed. We found a tendency for employees to leave their workstations early on in their pregnancies due to sick leave certificate prescriptions. Specialist consultation and collaboration with occupational health physicians to recommend interventions for pregnant employees can provide significant benefits and help some pregnant women to continue at their workstations with appropriate adjustments.
DISCUSSION
A specialised occupational health consultation is a useful instrument for identifying occupational hazards for both the pregnant woman and her unborn child. It is also an opportunity to explain employers' legal responsibilities and obligations to safeguard the health of their pregnant employees and to give specific advice for their company's situation. This consultation also enables employers to maintain their employees' valuable professional competencies in the workplace for as long as possible. Finally, occupational health consultation helps and supports healthcare providers who must, according to the law, make decisions about whether pregnant employees can continue working safely or not.
Topics: Female; Humans; Occupational Health; Occupational Medicine; Pregnancy; Referral and Consultation; Switzerland; Workplace
PubMed: 35704946
DOI: 10.4414/smw.2022.w30160 -
International Journal of Environmental... May 2020This year marks 30 years of close collaboration between a consortium of institutions, namely, the Northwest Public Health Research Center, Saint-Petersburg (NWPHRC); the... (Review)
Review
This year marks 30 years of close collaboration between a consortium of institutions, namely, the Northwest Public Health Research Center, Saint-Petersburg (NWPHRC); the Institute of Community Medicine (ICM) of UiT (The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø); the National Institute of Occupational Health (NIOH), Oslo; the University Hospital of Northern Norway (UNN) at Tromsø; and McMaster University (MU), Hamilton, ON, Canada. During the early years of cooperation, Dr. Chashchin was the Director of the Scientific Laboratory of the North-West Public Health Centre Branch of the NWPHRC located in the town of Kirovks in the Murmansk Region. The primary focus of this long-standing collaboration was to assess and address issues that are important for maintaining the health of the population living in the border areas of Russia and Norway and included the reduction of occupational health risks among workers employed in mining, metallurgical and machine-building enterprises located in the north-western region of Norway and the adjoining Kola Peninsula in Russia. These industrial activities constituted essential components of the local industries. The ongoing Russian-Norwegian cooperation in the field of occupational medicine is an excellent example of the effective combination of intellectual potential and research technologies of multiple countries. It has resulted in the development of a scientifically based set of measures for practical implementation, contributing to the improvement of working conditions and preservation of the health of workers employed at enterprises where the joint research was carried out.
Topics: Adult; Arctic Regions; Child; Cohort Studies; Environmental Health; Female; Humans; Infant, Newborn; Male; Norway; Occupational Medicine; Pilot Projects; Pregnancy; Russia
PubMed: 32486198
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph17113879