Law Commons^™

Occupational Injuries Among Nurses And Aides In A Hospital Setting, Leslie Boden, Grace Sembajwe, Torill Tveito, Dean Hashimoto, Karen Hopcia, Christopher Kenwood, Anne Stoddard, Glorian Sorenson

Dean M. Hashimoto

Background

Patient care workers in acute care hospitals are at high risk of injury. Recent studies have quantified risks and demonstrated a higher risk for aides than for nurses. However, no detailed studies to date have used OSHA injury definitions to allow for better comparability across studies.

Methods

We linked records from human resources and occupational health services databases at two large academic hospitals for nurses (n = 5,991) and aides (n = 1,543) in patient care units. Crude rates, rate ratios, and confidence intervals were calculated for injuries involving no days away and those involving at least 1 day …

The Role Of The Work Context In Multiple Wellness Outcomes For Hospital Patient Care Workers, Dean Hashimoto, Glorian Sorensen, Anne Stoddard, Sonia Stoffel, Orfeu Buxton, Grace Sembajwe, Jack Dennerlien, Karen Hopcia

Dean M. Hashimoto

Objective: To examine the relationships among low back pain (LBP), inadequate physical activity, and sleep deficiency among patient care workers, and of these outcomes to work context.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey of patient care workers (N = 1572, response rate = 79%).

Results: A total of 53% reported LBP, 46%, inadequate physical activity, and 59%, sleep deficiency. Inadequate physical activity and sleep deficiency were associated (P = 0.02), but LBP was not significantly related to either. Increased risk of LBP was significantly related to job demands, harassment at work, decreased supervisor support, and job title. Inadequate physical activity was significantly …

A Theory Of Discipline For Professional Misconduct, Nadia Sawicki

Nadia N. Sawicki

State medical boards derive their licensure and disciplinary authority from the police powers reserved to the states under the 10th Amendment. Though it is clear that public health, safety, and welfare are well-served by the educational and examination requirements uniformly imposed upon medical professionals, many medical practice acts also authorize discipline for professional misconduct that does not directly implicate clinical competence or patient safety - for example, being convicted of a felony or a crime of moral turpitude, failing to comply with a child support order, providing expert opinion to a court without reasonable investigation, ordering unnecessary laboratory tests, engaging …

Compliance With Advance Directives: Wrongful Living And Tort Law Incentives, Holly Lynch, Michele Mathes, Nadia Sawicki

Nadia N. Sawicki

Modern ethical and legal norms generally require that deference be accorded to patients' decisions regarding treatment, including decisions to refuse life-sustaining care, even when patients no longer have the capacity to communicate those decisions to their physicians. Advance directives were developed as a means by which a patient's autonomy regarding medical care might survive such incapacity. Unfortunately, preserving patient autonomy at the end of life has been no simple task. First, it has been difficult to persuade patients to prepare for incapacity by making their wishes known. Second, even when they have done so, there is a distinct possibility that …