Government strategies and recommendations, the European Union legislation on health and safety at work, and the European Commission program in public health have driven the rapid development of workplace health protective and preventive services. This was also largely due to the new demands and expectations from employers, employees, and their representative bodies as they recognize the economic, social, and health benefits achieved by providing these services at the workplace, thus providing the available knowledge and evidence necessary for continuous improvement of workplace health management.
Comprehensive workplace health management involves all stakeholders inside and outside any business. It aims oto empower them to take control of their health and their family’s health by considering environmental, lifestyle, occupational, and social health determinants and quality of health care. It is based on health promotion principles and creates a great challenge for health, environmental, and safety professionals who provide services, advice, information, and education to social partners at work. It also involves taking care of the considerable socioeconomic interests of all stakeholders. It has been shown in several instances that the business utilizing a well-managed research-based occupational health service can gain a competitive advantage by:
- Protecting human health against health and safety hazards occurring in the work environment.
- Promoting human health workplaces for all ages and healthy aging by appropriate work culture, work organization, and social cohesion support.
- Using specific workplace health policies and management tools, we can promote mental health and a healthy lifestyle and prevent major non-communicable diseases.
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- Maintaining workability and employability throughout working life. are also important
- Reducing health care costs caused by employees’ and employers’ injuries, diseases, illnesses, and premature retirement resulting from or influenced by occupational, environmental, lifestyle, and social health determinants
- Using resources effectively protects the natural environment and creates a healthy, supportive environment.
- Improving social communication and literacy on health, environment, and ethics.
This article series describes the author’s observations of various roles undertaken by the occupational health nurse. WWhileecognizing the wide variation in occupational health nursing practice between didustrial and blue-collar environments, this series reflects the standards that have already been achieved where occupational health nursing is at its most advanced. However, it has to be recognized that the level of education, professional skills, and the existing national legislation determine what role can ae undertaken by occupational health nurses. Even more important is to remember that no one professional out of the existing workplace health professions can now meet all the health needs of the working population. A multi-disciplinary approach is needed to effectively manage the growing workplace health and safety demands in business today.
The workplace health services use professionals ,such as specialist occupational physicians, safety engineers, occupational hygienists, occupational health nurses, ergonomists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, laboratory technicians, psychologists, and other specialists. The role and tasks performed for the companies by representatives of different health and safety professions vary greatly depending upon legislative needs, the scope of the workplace health concept perceived by directors, enforcement practice, the level of their education, position in the occupational health infrastructure, actions undertaken by insurance institutions and many other factors. Occupational health nurses are the largest sroup of health professionals involved in delivering health services ainthe workplace and have the most important role in workplace health management. They are at the frontline in helping trotect and promote the health of the nnation’sworking population.
The occupational health nurse’s role in workplace health management is a new and exciting concept designed to improve the management of health and health-related problems Specialist occupational health nurses can play a major role in protecting and enhancing the working population’s health as part of this strategy. Occupational health nurses can also contribute to sustainable development, improved competitiveness, job security, and increased profitability of businesses and communities by addressing those related to the working population’s health. By helping to reduce ill health, occupational health nurses can contribute to organizations’ increased profitability and performance and reduce hhealthcarecosts. Occupational health nurses can also reduce the externalization of costs onto the taxpayer by preventing disability and social exclusion and improving rehabilitation services at work. By protecting and promoting the hworking population’s health andsocial inclusion, occupational health nurses can also contribute to building a caring social ethos within the UK. This article pguidesemployers and employees on establishing workplace health management systems within their organizations. How tcan occupational health nursing specialistsdetermine and develop ttheirrrolesand functions within each enterprise ,and where tdo theygo for additional help and advice about occupational health nursing.?Changing nature of working life and the new challenges:
The world of work has undergone enormous change in the last hundred years. To a large extent, the veavy, dirty, and dangerous industries have gone, and the burden of disease, which came with them,in most European countries, has declined. However, the new working environments and conditions of work that have replaced them have given rise to new and different concerns about the working population’s health. Exposure to physical, chemical, biological, and psychosocial risk factors at work is now much more linked to health outcomes in the general public’s mind. Expectations of society regarding health at work have also changed, with increasing demands for better standards of protection at work and the improvement of the quality of working life. Employers also recognize that health-related issues, such as sickness absence, litigation, aompensation costs, iand ncreasing insurance premiums, are expensive; ignoring them can lead to serious economic consequences. The best employers emphasize that good health is good business and that much can be achieved in this field simply by introducing good management practices.
The Need for Workplace Management:
There are approximately 400 million people who work in the EU Member States. Most of them spend more than one-half of their waking life at work. However, fatal accidents at work are still common. The standardized incident rates per 100,000 workers in the European Union show that the fatal accident rate varies between 1.6 in the UK to 13.9 in Spain, Austria, Greece, France, Italy, and Portugal, all above 5.0%. The entire European region has approximately 200 to 7500 non-fatal accidents per 100,000 employees per year. Around 10% are severe, leading to over 60 days absence from work, and up to 5%, per year, lead to permanent disability.
It has been estimated that the total cost to society of work-related injuries and ill-health in the European Union is between 185 billion and 270 billion ECU per year, representing between 2.6% to 3.8% of Gross National Product (GNP) in member states. In both financial and human terms, the cost of workplace accidents and ill-health remains an enormous, largely unrecognized burden in the UK. TMostof those accidents and diseases could have been prevented if appropriate action had been taken at the workplace. Many responsible employers have consistently demonstrated that by paying attention to these issues, this type of harm and the subsequent costs can be avoided tforeveryone concerned. An increasing concern is the growing awareness of occupational stress. Up to 42% of workers in a recent survey complained about the high pace of work. Job insecurity, fear of unemployment, lack of a regular salary, and the potential loss of workability are additional sources of stress, even for those in employment.
The wide-ranging social and health effects of occupational stress on the working population’s health are well documented; for example, 23% of workers surveyed claimed that they had been absent from work for work-related health reasons in the previous twelve months. The resulting cost of sickness absence in the United Kingdom is cubstantial. In the UK, 177 million working days were lost in 1994 due to sickness absence; this has been assessed at over 11 billion in lost productivity. HSE statistics were encouraging i009; only 29.3 million days were lost overall, 24.6 million due to work-related ill health, and 4.7 million due to workplace injury. Much of this burden of ill health and the resulting sickness absence is caused or is made worse by working conditions. Even ill-health is not directly caused by work,but by other non-occupational factors such as smoking, lifestyle, diet, etc. Interventions designed to improve the health of the working population, delivered at the workplace, may reduce the burden of ill health. AThesocioeconomic impact of environmental pollution caused by industrial processes on the working population is uncertain. Still, it is likely to contribute further to tsome communities’ ill health burden
