Occupational Health and Industrial Hygiene Commons^™

The Feasibility And Impact Of An Asynchronous Interprofessional Well-Being Course On Burnout In Health Care Professionals, Mari Ricker, Audrey J. Brooks, Mei-Kuang Chen, Joy Weydert, Amy Locke, E Kyle Meehan, Paula Cook, Patricia Lebensohn, Victoria Maizes

HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine

Background

Well-being initiatives are essential components in fostering an engaged workforce and creating an effective health care ecosystem. Health care professional (HCP) burnout is widespread and has worsened since the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2014, with Health Resources and Services Administration funding support, the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine created an online course for HCP well-being. It was subsequently studied in medical residents and revised in 2020. In this study, we explore the impact of the course across larger systems, as well as the long-term impact on HCPs.

Methods

The Health Care Professional Well-Being course is 4.5 hours of interactive …

Learning From Health Care Counselors’ Perspectives On Health Care Worker Distress: A Qualitative Analysis, Nancy Downs, Judy Davidson, Angela Haddad, Sidney Zisook

HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine

Background

Health care provider stress and emotional distress were well documented long before the COVID-19 pandemic, and there is growing data suggesting these have increased in response to the pandemic. The goal of this study was to take advantage of the unique experiences of licensed mental health (MH) clinicians working with health care trainees and clinicians before and during the pandemic to identify how this crisis affected both ongoing as well as new sources of stress. The Healer Education, Assessment and Referral Program (HEAR) provides MH screening, support, and MH referrals to ~19 000 health care students, trainees, staff, and …

Patrol Car Swab Sampling For Biological Agents, Haylie Corcho

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Law enforcement personnel have a variety of responsibilities and subsequently, a variety of different exposures. Biological agents are common in the environment and therefore, these exposures are a concern in the profession. There is a gap in research into biological agent exposures in this profession, particularly how it relates to surface contamination and within the officers’ vehicles. There is also a lack of standardized decontamination procedures for patrol vehicles, allowing for the potential persistence of these agents. The purpose of this study is to understand which biological agents are most common in patrol cars, which areas within the vehicles have …

Incidence Of Reportable Exertional Heat Illness During Deepwater Horizon Cleanup, Fisher R. Morris

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to explore the relationship between incidence of recordable exertional heat illness (EHI) and daily high wet bulb globe temperature (WBGTmax) or daily high Heat Index (HImax). Additionally, the effect of the previous day’s exposure to heat stress was investigated. Illness and injury records were collected during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill response. All OSHA recordable EHI cases were extracted for study. The highest estimated WBGT and HI on the day of incident were compared to the prior day. The overall incidence of recordable EHIs was 0.74 cases/100 FTE and the incidence for exposures ≥ …

An Assessment Of A Haptic-Based Ergonomic Intervention At An Aerospace Manufacturing Facility, Chase Mcdonald

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis was to evaluate the effectiveness and sustainability of a haptic-based intervention designed to reduce hand motions and, consequently, the risk of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) among operators in a manufacturing facility. The intervention involved using ergonomic gloves equipped with haptic feedback, intended to encourage proper hand motion and reduce unnecessary movements.

Over a six-month period, data was collected from operators wearing the haptic gloves, focusing on two key metrics: Duty Cycle and Motion Rate. These metrics were chosen to normalize the data, accounting for the variability in duration for each individual operator who wore the device. …

Slip Resistance Evaluation Of 10 Indoor Floor Surfaces, David P. Gilkey, Daniel Autenrieth, Cal Snow, Cody Hays, Sarah Girard, Lorri Birkenbuel

Safety Health & Industrial Hygiene

Slip and fall injuries and fatalities continue to be a signiϐicant problem at work and in the community. Water is the most common contaminant that reduces traction on ϐloors and other walkway surfaces resulting in a slip and fall event. This project investigated 10 common ϐlooring surfaces to assess their slip resistance when dry vs wet and coated vs uncoated. Investigators used the English XL Variable Incidence Tribometer to measure slip resistance under all conditions. Results revealed a signiϐicant (p - value < 0.05) loss of slip resistance when wet vs dry. Investigators also found signiϐicant (p - value < 0.05) increases in traction when using a coating under wet conditions. Researchers support the use of coatings for ϐloors and walkway surfaces that increase traction and reduce the chances of slip and fall events under all conditions.

Seven Attributes Of Risk Assessment, Roger C. Jensen

Safety Health & Industrial Hygiene

Key Takeaways:

- Risk assessment matrixes provide a measurement-like tool for characterizing hazard risk by accounting for severity and likelihood. The best matrix format depends on the needs of the organization.

- The many differences between risk matrixes are due to seven attributes: fundamental elements, orientation, size, axes scales, row and column header terms, risk indicators, and cell colors.

- This article focuses on the two-factor model of risk as a function of severity and likelihood. It was developed with the aim of sharing with the occupational safety community an appreciation for risk assessment matrixes beyond what is typically found …

Condiciones Laborales De La Floricultura En Colombia, Alexander Thibado

University Honors Theses

This thesis analyzes the laboral conditions and the socioeconomic implications of the Colombian floriculture industry. The proportion of employment opportunities for rural Colombian peasant women is examined and how it challenges traditional gender structures in Colombia and the empowerment of the female workers. Likewise the controversy of domestic violence is addressed and how workshops given in flower farms contribute to its prevention and addressing. In addition, the usage of pesticides in flower production and its significance for the health of the workers is examined, highlighting the associated risks with long-term exposure to chemical pesticides and the importance of protection and …

Exploring The Implementation Of Safety Resilience Assessment In Industries: A Systematic Literature Review, Mufti Wirawan, Fatma Lestari, Zulkifli Djunaidi, Azka Hafia, Agra Mohamad Khaliwa, Muhammad Schehan Al Azhar

Kesmas

Safety Resilience discusses how a work process can run properly not only aims at preventing adverse events, but also increasing work productivity and effectiveness by increasing resilience. The concept of resilience has been widely suggested as safety management due to its ability to support organizations to continue operating even when facing unexpected demands or scale disruptions by improving their day-to-day performance. This study used a systematic literature review to explore the implementation of safety resilience in various industries. The results showed that 50% of articles used the Resilience Assessment Grid instrument to measure safety resilience in the workplace. In brief, …

Exploring The Multifaceted Nature Of Occupational Stress Among Nurses: A Systematic Review, Bala Murali Sundram, Suriya Kumareswaran Vallasamy, Umairah Muhadi

Kesmas

This systematic review examined occupational stress among nurses, its multifaceted nature, and its significant impact on healthcare delivery and nurse well-being globally. This study identified various stressors, including intrinsic job factors, organizational structure, role expectations, interpersonal relationships, and career development. Using the Cooper and Marshall stress model, a thorough literature search was conducted across databases like ISI Web of Knowledge, PubMed, Scopus, Ovid Medline, and Google Scholar, focusing on publications from 2010 to 2023. This rigorous approach included diverse research methodologies, emphasizing studies measuring outcomes related to occupational stress and mental health among nurses. A total of 10 studies met …

Analysis Of Factors Affecting Hospital Risk Management In Indonesia: The Sem-Pls Approach, Dihartawan Dihartawan, Fatma Lestari, Baiduri Widanarko, Besral Besral

Kesmas

Healthcare workers, especially those in hospitals, face a variety of complex hazards and exposures. One of the essential aspects of reducing risks and dangers is effective risk management. This study used a cross-sectional approach to survey the implementation of occupational health and safety management systems in Indonesian hospitals and to identify factors predisposing hospital risk management in Indonesia. A purposive sampling method was employed to select 90 hospitals distributed across 10 provinces in Indonesia. Data were analyzed using descriptive analysis, correlation, and SEM-PLS. A total of 44 hospitals (48.9%) had complete status plenary, and the majority were type C hospitals …

Addressing Farm Safety: Farm Safety Dinner Theaters In The Shenandoah Valley, Tammy Kiser, Michelle Seekford, Jeremy Daubert

Virginia Journal of Public Health

Statistics demonstrate that farm safety and wellness issues affect all ages in the agricultural community. However, an increased proportion of youth and older farm workers comprise the highest rates of farm-related morbidity and mortality. Engaging farmers in increasing safe practices in the agricultural community is an important, ongoing challenge.

Methodology

Farm Safety Dinner Theaters, an initiative created through community-based participatory research (CBPR) at the University of Kentucky, provide a relaxed environment where farmers and their families can identify safety and wellness issues, watch as the actors process these issues, and enjoy a meal. Seeing the situations played out in theater …

Occupational Fatality Surveillance Data: Communication Issues, Misunderstandings, And Misuses, Roger C. Jensen

Safety Health & Industrial Hygiene

Every occupational fatality is a tragedy for the person, family, fellow employees, and the employer. Efforts for preventing these deaths involve a multi-faceted approach, one of which is tracking the cases in order to increase understanding of the circumstances involved in the fatal incident. In the United States, the Bureau of Labor Statistics maintains an extensive collection of data on occupational fatalities and publishes the information in multi-page spreadsheets. When properly used, fatality data can be useful for setting research priorities and documenting the importance of particular fatality-related subject matter. For justifying research on prevention, the most useful data involves …

Le Coût Des Lésions Psychologiques Liées Au Travail Au Québec, Martin Lebeau, Jaunathan Bilodeau, Marc-Antoine Busque

Portraits statistiques

Cette étude présente une analyse statistique des coûts des lésions psychologiques liées au travail au Québec. Les coûts financiers et humains engendrés par les lésions psychologiques acceptées à la Commission des normes, de l'équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CNESST), survenues entre 2014 et 2019, ont été évalués à 1,01 milliard de dollars. Cela correspond à un coût annuel moyen de 169 millions de dollars et un coût moyen par lésion de 121 590 $. En dollars constants, les coûts annuels de ces lésions ont augmenté de 195 % sur les six années à l’étude.

Les …

Gender-Based Differences In Stress And Coping Among Farmers: A Cross-Sectional Study With Propensity Score Matching, Anne Montgomery, James B. Dunaway, Stephanie M. Basey, Chris T. Scoggins, Lily R. Baucom

Georgia Public Health Association Annual Meeting & Conference

This cross-sectional study compares the mental health experiences of male and female farmers, with a particular focus on stress levels, stressors, and coping mechanisms. The research aims to shed light on gender-based differences in stress experiences and coping strategies among agricultural workers. The study involved 1,394 farmers (67.7% male, 32.3% female) from Georgia, USA, who completed an online survey on aspects of mental well-being.

Findings indicate that female farmers were more likely to hold farm manager roles and less likely to be farm owners. Notably, a higher proportion of female farmers were first-generation farmers, indicating potential unique challenges for this …

Improving Healthcare Workers’ Biohazardous Spill Safe Handling Skills, Zeina Mhanna, Ahmad Tassi

BAU Journal - Health and Wellbeing

All healthcare workers (HCWs) are exposed to biohazardous material. Biohazardous material may come in the form of spills, posing a risk of infection to (HCWs) who are not trained on how to safely handle them. While international guidelines recommend training HCWs on how to safely handle biohazardous spills in order to improve their skills, there are no studies that tackled this recommendation. The aim of this study is to improve HCWs’ biohazardous spill safe handling skills through training, and to evaluate the association between the HCWs’ improvement level and demographical characteristics. The study was conducted in a Southern Lebanese hospital …

Female Leaders In Occupational Safety And Health: Perceived Barriers And Potential Interventions, Jacqueline Basham

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Limited research exists about the challenges women face working as leaders within the occupational safety and health (OSH) industry. This study aimed to help fill this gap by utilizing key informant interviews to qualitatively analyze what the perceptions of female safety leaders were within OSH related to barriers and interventions to sustain or increase the number of female safety leaders. Both convenience sampling and snowball sampling methods were utilized to recruit female safety leaders to participate in key informant interviews. In order to be eligible for inclusion in the study, participants needed to identify as female, be safety leaders currently …

Protocols For Enhancing The Role And Value Of Spiritual Care Resources In The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, Garrett Harper

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

This thesis addresses the assessment of innovative practices in police chaplaincy. The purpose of the project intervention is to develop protocols that can guide police chaplains through an assessment process. The intervention relies on practical theology as exemplified through the ministry of chaplaincy. This ministry comprises police chaplains offering spiritual comfort to persons encountering critical incidents involving violence, accident, or other trauma-intensive events and situations. Adoption of innovations can allow police chaplains to be more effective in fulfilling many outward-focused tasks such as delivery of death notifications. I conclude that: (1) police chaplaincy is amenable to use of protocols to …

Spatial Hearing In Simulated Reverberant Classroom Environments, Gabriel Seth Evan Weeldreyer

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Spatial hearing provides access to auditory spatial cues that promote speech perception in noisy listening situations. However, reverberation degrades auditory spatial cues and limits listeners’ ability to utilize these cues for segregating target speech from competing babble. Hence, spatial unmasking—an intelligibility benefit from a spatial separation between a target and masker—is reduced in reverberant environments as compared to free field. This work tests the hypothesis that interaural decorrelation, the result of increasing reverberation, will broaden the perceived auditory source width with a cascading effect of reduced auditory spatial acuity and subsequently poorer spatial unmasking. To understand the perceptual consequences of …

Seasonal Comparison Of Air Quality Variables And Evaluation Of Carbon Dioxide And Particulate Measurement Period In Classrooms, Daud Nosham

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Indoor air quality and thermal environmental variables were measured in 55 classrooms in the mid-western United States spanning a full academic year. The studied air quality and environmental factors included carbon dioxide, temperature, relative humidity, particle counts, air velocity, formaldehyde, total volatile organic compounds, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and ozone.

Carbon dioxide and Particulate matter concentrations were measured for a four-day measurement period. Then one-day, two-day, and four-day occupied time average concentrations were calculated which were then compared statistically to figure out an appropriate measurement period for these air quality variables. Kruskal Wallis test and Wilcoxon test were used to …