Work-A Journal of Prevention Assessment & Rehabilitation最新文献

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated job pressure and risks for healthcare workers (HCWs), who have a significantly higher prevalence of COVID-19 than the general population. The study examines the work-related stressors encountered by healthcare professionals treating COVID-19 patients, focusing on potential variations based on personal and work-related variables.

Objective: This study investigated work-related stressors among healthcare professionals treating coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients, aiming to identify challenges and inform targeted support. The hypothesis posited that stress levels vary based on workload, extended hours, insufficient rest, discomfort from protective gear, burnout, and job dissatisfaction. Additionally, stress effects were expected to differ by sex, age, marital status, income, and education, with younger individuals, women, and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds experiencing higher rates of stress.

Methods: This study examined 198 Jordanian healthcare professionals treating COVID-19 patients across four government, semi-governmental, and private hospitals. The custom-designed instrument assessed demographics and work-related stressors. The measurement instrument and model showed high reliability and validity.

Results: The findings revealed that work-related stress and fatigue were rampant among participants, influenced by workload, extended working hours, insufficient rest time, and discomfort from protective gear. Burnout and job dissatisfaction were also reported, with a significant proportion contemplating leaving their jobs. Gender disparities were noted: males struggled with shift systems, while females faced difficulties accessing personal protective equipment and feared job loss. Younger individuals experienced higher stress and fatigue levels, whereas older groups reported significant stress and fatigue compared to middle-aged groups. Additionally, the marital status, education level, and income were linked to specific stress factors.

Conclusions: The findings confirm that healthcare professionals treating COVID-19 patients experience varying work-related stress levels due to workload, long hours, insufficient rest, protective gear discomfort, burnout, and job dissatisfaction. The findings, therefore, underscore the need for targeted support and interventions to address stress and safeguard their well-being during the pandemic.

Background: Marketisation trends have introduced new elements in residential care homes, potentially related to the psychosocial work environment and well-being of care workers. Objective: This study examined differences in job demands and resources across public, outsourced, and private residential care home providers and their associations with care workers' burnout, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions. Methods: Data from 253 care workers across 19 residential care homes in three municipalities were analysed using a cross-sectional design, with a 45.3% response rate. We applied the Job Demands-Resources theory and the Copenhagen psychosocial questionnaire, conducting analyses of variance and multiple regressions with Generalised Estimating Equations to account for nested data. Results: Outsourced care workers reported higher emotional demands than those in the public sector, while private providers offered greater influence and supervisor support compared to public ones. Burnout levels were significantly higher in the medium-sized municipality compared to the small one, while provider type was not significant. Private care workers reported higher job satisfaction, but public sector workers reported better work-life balance. Approximately 60% of respondents considered leaving their jobs at least occasionally, with public sector workers reporting higher turnover intentions than those in for-profit settings. Conclusions: The study highlights the need for targeted work environment improvements, including better leadership and support in the public sector, addressing emotional demands in outsourced settings, and encouraging full-time employment to support work-life balance in the private sector. Stakeholders should prioritise improving job resources to improve care workers' well-being, especially amid budget constraints and profit goals.

Background: It is crucial to understand perceptions on exposure to air pollution for designing targeted interventions, raising awareness, and fostering measures to mitigate occupational health risk and improve the overall health outcomes.

Objective: This study aims at understanding the perception of the practitioners of various occupations vis-à-vis the general public on occupational exposure to air pollution (OEAP).

Methods: The four-step assessment we carried out involved recording perceptions via Google forms and in-person surveys, conducting statistical analyses (descriptive statistics, regression analyses and tests of significance), analyses using Odds Ratio (OR) and comparing the results with risk perception theories.

Results: 712 respondents across the country participated in the survey and 57% of them perceived that they work in a moderately healthy environment. Test of significance showed that gender and age do not significantly affect the perception. However, factors like education, income level, locality, and location of the job significantly influenced the perception. Linear regression analysis showed that ambient air quality is a significant predictor of workplace air quality perception. The OR indicated strong dependence of workers' perception on the actual OEAP. Regarding the exposure associated with a profession, the perception of the practitioners of that profession and the public matched for those professions where the exposures were expected to be high but deviated significantly when the profession had relatively lower exposure to pollution.

Conclusion: The perception of risks compared to actual risks will serve as the foundation for developing awareness and sensitization programmes focused on occupational risk.

Background: This study explores the psychosocial impact of sports-related injuries on elite basketball players and their search for psychological and counselling support.

Objective: The objective is to examine how injuries affect athletes' mental well-being, their attitudes toward received support, and their use of psychological interventions.

Methods: A phenomenological approach, analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM), was applied to data from 253 elite Turkish basketball players, including active and retired athletes. A structured questionnaire was administered to gather the data.

Results: The results show that while athletes seek individual psychological support, they often feel neglected by their clubs, leading to insecurity and helplessness. Many report dissatisfaction with the mental health services provided by their organisations.

Conclusions: The study recommends integrating sports psychologists and counsellors within clubs, promoting mental health awareness, and forming interdisciplinary teams to address this. Holistic sports education programs that foster psychological resilience and emotional regulation are also advised. Further research is needed to assess the long-term effects of interventions and the role of organizational support on athletes' mental well-being.

Background: This is the next entry in the WORK "Bridging the Gap" series. It continues the case study by describing procedures and methods used by occupational therapists in work-oriented neurorehabilitation to help clients bridge the gap between their work tasks and their abilities, using information from the Occupational Information Network (O*NET).

Objective: To demonstrate the potential of integrating O*NET information with occupational therapy procedures and practices.

Methods: A competitive employment disability case study provided the context for an interdisciplinary work-oriented reflective practice and dialogic inquiry approach to post-professional mentoring involving the authors and a fictional client's occupational therapist. The dialogue focuses on integrating information from O*NET about the target job's tasks and necessary abilities to improve client-centered practice for persons focused on returning to competitive employment.

Results: In this case study, O*NET information facilitated return-to-work planning and the selection of evaluation and therapy tools. Information about the client's job tasks found in O*NET was used to set a detailed vocational ecological context for work-oriented services, beginning with the intake interview. Concerns about the use of self-report data were addressed. Screening for executive dysfunction with the BRIEF questionnaire guided clinical focus on O*NET cognitive ability variables.

Conclusions: This case study shows how O*NET empirical data can improve the relevance of Occupational Therapy assessment and treatment for individuals aiming to return to competitive employment. The study illustrates how O*NET data can help guide occupational therapy intervention by addressing clients' specific concerns about potential limitations in their ability to perform job tasks.

Background: Despite national recommendations and decades of literature highlighting the importance of faculty wellness, gaps at academic medical centers remain. Multilevel wellness initiatives are necessary to create change and optimally support academic faculty.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to examine faculty perceptions of factors contributing to lack of wellness and proposed solutions in the context of current resources at our academic medical center in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States.

Methods: The Georgetown University Medical Center Faculty Development Committee created a Wellness Task Force in response to a charge by leadership. The 11-member Task Force included faculty members from different disciplines: psychiatry, neurology, family medicine, pediatrics, nursing and oncology. Data collection occurred September 2021 to January 2022. Interviews and focus groups elicited faculty input on 1) factors that contribute to and detract from wellness and 2) strategies to enhance wellness within our academic medical center.

Results: Faculty described individual and organizational factors contributing to lack of wellness: challenges with balance; lack of connection, autonomy, resources and feeling valued; communication; culture; attention to diversity, equity, and inclusion; leadership; and workload. Proposed solutions included a comprehensive, centralized and consistent plan; culture change; incentives; increased autonomy, feelings of value, and resources.

Conclusions: Wellness as a budgetary priority and strategic initiative remains a critical goal for academic medical centers. Faculty perceptions of factors contributing to lack of wellness and proposed solutions underscore and add to national recommendations.

Background: The management of precarious work of delivery workers (DW) by delivery platform companies (DPC) incorporates technologies that deepen the subordination of this workforce. The demands placed on DW to carry out their tasks can compromise their health.

Objective: To analyze the contradictory demands of work subordinated to DPC and their repercussions on health, as opposed to the regulation strategies adopted by DW to prevent illnesses and accidents.

Methods: A situated analysis of the activity of DW was carried out based on the assumptions of Ergonomic Work Analysis in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, in 2022. General and systematic observations were carried out, emphasizing the tasks of waiting for and receiving delivery orders and collecting goods, as well as self-confrontation interviews with DW.

Results: DPC are new spaces for the exploitation and precariousness of work, still operating without regulation. DPC use technology to restrict decision-making and intensify work. This increases insecurity by reducing the spaces for regulation in the face of the unpredictability of street work and the pressure of low remuneration. Consequently, there are psychosocial and physical demands associated with work accidents and illness.

Conclusion: Expanding the autonomy of these workers in terms of managing their own work and eliminating mechanisms that promote its intensification are measures required to prevent accidents and illness.

Background: This paper focuses on patient-initiated workplace violence (referred to WPV hereafter) towards healthcare workers in long-term care (LTC) and mental health and substance use (MHSU) care settings. While an extensive body of evidence has thoroughly examined WPV, our understanding of what takes place immediately before or during a violent incident, known as 'on-the-spot' experiences is limited.

Objective: This study examined (a) 'on-the-spot' experiences, (b) contributing factors, and (c) warning signs of impending WPV using the experiences of healthcare worker victims and witnesses and healthcare attendees in LTC and MHSU.

Methods: The study was conducted in one LTC home and two MHSU units in British Columbia, Canada. In-depth semi-structured virtual interviews were conducted with 17 participants from June to September 2023. Workplace Health Indicator Tracking and Evaluation (WHITE) data included 38 WPV incidents occurring between January 2022 to March 2023. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis.

Results: Six participants (35%) identified as both victims and witnesses of WPV, four participants (24%) as only victims, and five participants (29%) as only witnesses. Contributing factors to WPV encompassed two main themes and their subthemes: (1) patient/resident factors (cognitive impairment and neurodevelopmental conditions); (2) healthcare factors (lack of continuity of care across healthcare, community and family, care provision, approaches and skills in interactions with patients/residents, access to safety tools and security personnel, and unmet needs and workload and human resource challenges).

Conclusion: WPV may be reduced through access to specialized care, adoption of team-based care and person-centered care approaches, addressing resource constraints, and offering context-specific training.

Background: BP are the most common means for carrying items and are used by a large population but transporting heavy loads (over extended periods of time) can lead to a variety of health-related problems. An ergonomic backpack (EBP) was designed as a potential solution to reduce the incidence of injuries associated with heavy backpack weight.

Objective: The objective of this study was to design a novel ergonomic offloading backpack that reduced loads on the shoulder and spine compared to a traditional modern day backpack (BP).

Methods: Strap tension and shoulder loads were measured in a common two strap style commuter BP and the EBP during quiet (vertical) stance conditions for five weight increments (0 kg to 11 kg) to confirm the offloading capabilities of the EBP. Portable luggage scales were attached directly to the shoulder straps and configured to measure strap tension. Load sensors placed underneath the shoulder straps provided an estimate of the total force acting on the shoulders and transferred to the spine.

Results: The EBP had a large effect size and significant reduction (p < 0.05) in shoulder loads compared to a traditional BP for all bag weight conditions. Similarly, the EBP had a large effect size in reducing strap tension compared to the traditional modern day two strap BP.

Conclusion: A newly designed EBP was effective at transferring a significantly large portion of the shoulder and spine loads to the pelvic region.

Background: Despite the prevalence and impacts of pregnancy loss, there is a lack of statutory or workplace-based supports for workers experiencing pregnancy loss, especially before the point of viability. As reproductive and working ages overlap, workplaces can play a significant role in pregnancy loss experiences.

Objective: The aim of this study is to map the available literature on workplace supports for pregnancy loss before viability.

Methods: We conducted a scoping review following JBI Guidance and a pre-registered protocol. We searched eight academic databases/platforms, grey literature sources, and reference lists for eligible documents (2012-2022).

Results: Following title and abstract screening and full-text review, 48 records were included for analysis: 18 reports, 15 journal articles, 6 guides/codes of practice, 3 theses, 2 book/book chapters, and 4 other narrative records. Secondary research was the most common methodology employed (n = 16) followed by primary research (n = 14). Reports mainly originated from South-East Asia, while all empirical studies took place in high-income, English-speaking countries. Leave from work was the most discussed/important form of workplace support. Helpful organisational measures were also identified.

Conclusions: Our review found a lack of empirical research on workplace supports and experiences of pregnancy loss. Further research is needed to understand experiences and develop and implement appropriate supports.