AOHP at 25: Raising the profile of HEH
AOHP at 25: Raising the profile of HEH
Challenges remain to cut hospital hazards
Twenty-five years ago, when hospital employee health was synonymous with tuberculosis testing, hospital hazards received little attention, and AIDS was called gay-related immune deficiency, a group of California nurses joined together with a mission. They were trying to protect hospital employees, and they needed each other's help.
They formed the Association of Hospital Employee Health Professionals as a way to network, share resources, and promote the prevention of hospital-based injury and illness.
Today, that organization thrives as the Association of Occupational Health Professionals in Healthcare (AOHP), with more than 900 members, 23 chapters, and members in almost every state. When AOHP celebrates its anniversary at its annual conference, to be held Oct. 4-7 in Sacramento, its founders and leaders will reflect on the successes as well as the challenges that remain.
Employee health professionals now deal with pandemic influenza planning, bioterrorism and emergency preparedness, the Family and Medical Leave Act, safe patient handling, wellness promotion and accident prevention, as well as the usual tasks of TB testing, immunizations, and pre-placement exams. And yet about 37% of employee health professionals have no clerical support, according to a survey conducted by AOHP in 2005.
AOHP continues to work to raise the profile of employee health. For example, AOHP officers send comments to federal agencies and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations when they are considering changes in guidelines or standards. AOHP also is renewing its alliance with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which gives it a voice with that agency.
"Our goal as an association is to increase the national recognition of AOHP," says Denise Strode, RN, BSN, COHN-S/CM, executive president of AOHP and workers' compensation case manager for OSF SFMC Center for Occupational Health at Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria, IL.
Starting from scratch
In the early days, employee health nurses worked with no guidelines or standards. If an employee reported a needlestick, they received some antibiotic ointment and a tetanus shot, recalls Joyce Safian, RN, FNP, PhD, one of the founders and the first executive president of AOHP. Safian will be the keynote speaker at the 25th annual conference.
As a young nurse just out of nursing school, Safian was working in the intensive care unit when a medical intern who had a needlestick admitted. He had developed fulminating hepatitis B and died within 24 hours. That tragic episode "never left my mind," recalls Safian, who later founded an occupational health clinic and is now president and CEO of North Bay Corporate Health Services Inc. in Santa Rosa, CA. "I recognized the importance and significance of what could happen to someone if they had a needlestick."
In 1978, Safian gave a presentation on "a comprehensive employee health program in a hospital" for the American Public Health Association conference. It was part of her master's thesis. She began fielding phone calls from employee health nurses seeking advice.
After much prodding, Safian agreed to help start an association, as long as she had the help of some other pioneers in the field, including Ann Stinson, Mary Alice Hall, Karen Gammelgard, and Cliff Strother.
Forty employee health professionals from northern California hospitals met together in 1981 and developed seven goals: to network, develop a professional continuing education program, publish a newsletter and a manual, sponsor research, provide consultation, develop political awareness and the impact of employee health on hospitals, and develop the role and recognition for the employee health professional.
Those goals remain much the same today.
Word of the new organization (then known as AHEHP) spread quickly, and Safian heard from employee health nurses who wanted to join. At that time, the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses (AAOHN) didn't offer any targeted programs or services for hospital-based employee health. (AAOHN now has a large contingency of members in health care, offers health care-oriented sessions at its conferences, and has a relationship with AOHP.)
"Nobody really considered that hospital employee health was that important," Safian recalls. "We all knew it was because we were dealing with infections, communicable diseases, injuries. We were dealing with wellness programs, drug and alcohol issues. My days were completely filled. I could have worked 12-hour days."
When she started the employee health department at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, Safian had a used desk and an exam table. "I did everything. I even had to vacuum my own office. I wasn't considered that important."
By the time she left to start her occupational health clinic, the employee health department took up half a building and saw more than 40 patients a day.
Nurses in Southern California formed the second chapter of AOHP, and by May 1981, the fledgling organization already had 95 members. The first conference was held in October in Clear Lake, CA.
Hospital Employee Health newsletter formed shortly after AOHP and became an independent vehicle covering employee health issues in hospitals and information on the new organization and its mission. Chapters began to form elsewhere in the country. In 1983, AOHP gave its first research grant to an infection control nurse who developed a paper on "hospital personnel perspectives of the etiology of needlestick injuries and methods for their prevention" — discussing needle safety.
"It was a very dynamic and forward-thinking group who had a lot of experience and great plans for their profession," says Kathy Harben, the first editor of HEH and now enterprise communication officer for the Coordinating Office for Global Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Today, AOHP seeks to address both the beginning employee health nurse and the advanced professional at its annual conference. For example, this year's agenda includes sessions on implementing lift teams and other ergonomic interventions, using Quantiferon-TB Gold to replace TB skin testing, and a businesslike approach to return-to-work programs.
AOHP soon will release a resource guide on patient handling that focuses on the specific needs of acute care units. It was developed as part of the alliance with OSHA and will be available on both the AOHP and OSHA web sites.
"The complexity and sophistication of issues that the employee health professional is now addressing is mind-boggling," Safian says.
She will provide a historical perspective, and AOHP will present a timeline of its history. A gala event will celebrate the 25th anniversary, with dinner, dancing, a casino, and a speaker on "Humor at Work."
"We're hoping a lot of people will come and celebrate with us," says Sandy Prickett, RN, FNP, COHN-S, conference chair and employee health services coordinator/nurse practitioner at Marin General Hospital in Greenbrae and Novato (CA) Community Hospital. "As AOHP turns 25, I wanted [an agenda] that looks at the past as well as the present and future."
The internet has transformed the ability of employee health professionals to network and tap into resources. AOHP now has an e-mail listserv that enables members to discuss their concerns and share ideas.
But with all the changes in the past 25 years, many similar challenges remain. MaryAnn Gruden, MSN, CRNP, NP-C, COHN-S/CM, past executive president and employee health coordinator at Western Pennsylvania Hospital in Pittsburgh, noticed familiar topics as she perused the brochure for the first conference.
"A lot of the issues we were dealing with 25 years ago are still issues today," she says.
(Editor's note: A conference brochure and other information are available at the AOHP web site, www.aohp.org.)
Twenty-five years ago, when hospital employee health was synonymous with tuberculosis testing, hospital hazards received little attention, and AIDS was called gay-related immune deficiency, a group of California nurses joined together with a mission.Subscribe Now for Access
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