-
The stages of change model was developed by James Prochaska, PhD, director of the Cancer Prevention Research center and professor of Clinical and Health Psychology at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston, and Carlo DiClemente, PhD, professor and chair of the Department of Psychology at the University of Maryland in Baltimore. The stages are based on the idea that people progress through different stages at their own rate before successful behavior change.
-
With a myriad of potential hazards, laboratories need a complex array of safety measures. They must develop a Chemical Hygiene Plan, detailing how they will minimize the risk of exposure to chemicals, monitor the workplace and respond to exposures. Beyond the Laboratory Standard, there are a number of other regulatory standards that impact labs, including respiratory protection, hazard communications, control of hazardous energy (lockout/tagout) and personal protective equipment.
-
Two years after the emergence of the H1N1 pandemic, hospitals are still learning lessons that may help avert serious problems in a future outbreak. Respiratory protection in particular became a contentious issue during the pandemic, and it remains an area of concern.
-
Beware of the beautiful respirator. Efforts to make a fashion statement with an N95 respirator degrade the protective qualities and negate its approval by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, says Roland Berry Ann, deputy director of NIOSH's National Personal Protective Technology Lab.
-
As hospitals ramp up their efforts to provide safe patient handling, there's also an increase in the services available to help them. In fact, even beyond training and traditional consulting, hospitals now can hire contracted lift teams.
-
America's health care workers may provide the best of care to their patients, but they aren't very good at caring for their own health. They have a greater burden of chronic diseases than other workers which also means higher medical costs for their employers.
-
Lift teams are now the law in California. After seven years and five vetoes, a safe patient handling bill was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown that requires hospitals to have "trained lift teams or other support staff trained in safe lifting techniques."
-
Growing anti-regulatory pressure and presidential politics bring new hurdles for the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which was already known for its snail-like pace of rulemaking. The agency has delayed the release of several key regulations, and observers expect little to emerge in the midst of an election year.
-
Cleaning patient's rooms may not seem like the most important job in the hospital. But environmental service workers save lives in their own way by preventing the spread of infections. A new spotlight on their role may boost the resources, communication and training focused on this group of workers.
-
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, these industries had the highest rates of work-related injury and illness in the United States in 2010:
