In this issue of Occupational Medicine
Assistant Editor
In this issue, Occupational Medicine highlights a range of issues pertinent to working in the public sector.
Roelen et al. [1] describe a cross sectional survey of women working in healthcare in the Netherlands and found that age and good general (but not mental) health were inversely associated with previous short and long term absence. They also found that number of hours worked and personal problem solving styles were positively associated with the frequency of short term absences, providing us with a possible way of moving forward to reduce such absences through training to improve coping. Also in the healthcare setting, two papers look at issues around sharps injuries.
Varsou et al. [2] questioned fourth and fifth year medical students at the University of Aberdeen about their knowledge of prevention, management and their personal experiences of such injuries over the previous year. Although it is encouraging to see that fifth year students had more knowledge than their colleagues in the fourth year, bad practice such as re-sheathing needles was prevalent and less than half of students were familiar with procedures for dealing with an injury. With more than one in ten of respondents personally experiencing a needle stick injury in the last year, the paper shows us clearly that we have a way to go in getting key messages through to this vulnerable group.
The second paper on sharps injuries comes from Italy where Brusaferro et al. [3] report the results of an analysis of training programmes. Teaching sessions lasting 8 hours for groups of up to 30 employees were conducted and over an 8-year period, such programmes reduced the occurrence of needle stick injuries against a background of increasing numbers of staff. A very positive finding was that trained staff had a reduced relative risk of injury but a closer analysis of the findings showed that the reduction of risk only occurred in nursing staff and the only behavioural changes were in syringe disposal and the type of routine assistance offered to patients.
Outside healthcare and in the military environment, Jones et al. [4] linked hospital admissions information for service personnel treated for mental health problems with occupational outcome from a database used for personnel administration. They found that hospitalization for a mental health problem in the military context was associated with a low rate of retention in the service. They also report that personnel receiving one to one therapy did better than those in group therapy but the length of the hospital stay did not influence the outcome. Perhaps unsurprisingly low retention was seen in personnel who had community treatment resistant substance misuse and in people with mood disorders but perhaps surprisingly (to a non-military occupational physician anyway) was better in those with post traumatic stress disorder, acute stress disorder and adjustment disorders.
There is growing interest not only in the prevention of occupationally acquired ill health but also the maintenance of health to promote continued employment. Consequently there is a growing need not only to document how often risk control goes wrong and how people acquire injuries and illnesses through their work but also to identify what can be done to support people to better manage their health and stay at work. The studies carried out and reported in this issue do just that and provide us with valuable insights in how to prevent harm.
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 Top References |
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- Roelen CAM, Schreuder JAH, Koopmans PC, et al. Sickness absence frequency among women working in hospital care. Occup Med (Lond) (2009) 59:502–505.
- Varsou O, Lemon JS, Dick FD. Sharps injuries among medical students. Occup Med (Lond) (2009) 59:509–511.
- Brusaferro S, Calligaris L, Farneti F, et al. Educational programmes and sharps injuries in health care workers. Occup Med (Lond) (2009) 59:512–514.
- Jones N, Fear NT, Greenberg N, et al. Occupational outcomes in soldiers hospitalized with mental health problems. Occup Med (Lond) (2009) 59:459–465.
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