Health and safety committees can be viewed as an organizational indicator of management’s commitment to safety and health. Obviously, the mere presence of a committee does not guarantee a strong commitment to employee safety and health, however, the literature is scant on the topic of the impact of health and safety committees in general and largely silent on the issue in nurses workplaces.
Increasingly, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is requiring “employee involvement” as a component of comprehensive safety and programs and/or as a component of a hazard-specific program (for example the ergonomics standard requires employee involvement). In healthcare, it is not known to what extent health and safety committees are present in nurses workplaces, include staff nurses or other employees, and to what extent these committees influence safety and health outcomes.
This analysis looked at the presence of safety and health committees in nurses’ workplaces and the relationship between presence of a committee and availability of selected safety technology. The analysis focuses on describing the types of workplaces that are most likely to have health and safety committees, the prevalence of high-risk (for injury) tasks performed by the nurses by type of healthcare workplace, and the prevalence of safety technology and training. An association between the presence of a health and safety committee and the presence of lifting teams, adjustable beds, engineered sharps and transfer boards was found.
Learning Objectives: 1) Discuss variation in the definition of "Health and Safety Committee" 2) Describe the theoretical model used to guide the inquiry of the impact of health and safety committees in healthcare. 3) List the confounding variables for the impact of health and safety committees on employee health. 4) Describe the practice considerations for occupational health nurses if health and safety committees are found to increase the liklihood of safety technology in nurses' workplaces.
Keywords: Occupational Health, Health Care Workers
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.