Determining the level and cost of sickness presenteeism among hospital staff in Turkey

Objective. This study aimed to determine the associations between sickness presenteeism and socio-demographic factors, perceived health status and health complaints among hospital staff and to calculate the cost burdens and productivity losses attributed to presenteeism. Methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted using 951 hospital staff, including physicians, nurses, midwives, other health personnel and administrative staff working in two hospitals located in K?r?kkale province in Turkey. The health and work performance questionnaire developed by Kessler et al. was revised to measure sickness presenteeism. Results. After performing Student’s t test and a one-way analysis of variance, presenteeism was mostly observed in women, nurse-midwives, young employees, university health staff and health workers with low health status. Average productivity loss and cost of lost productivity per staff member were calculated as 19.92?h/TRY 315.57 for 2 weeks and 478.08?h/TRY 7573.68 for 1 year. Conclusions. The problem of sickness presenteeism is mostly observed in women and nurses. It causes both financial burdens and productivity losses for hospitals. These survey results are thus expected to provide critically important information on presenteeism for decision-makers and healthcare managers.     

Analysing workplace violence towards health care staff in public hospitals using alternative ordered response models: the case of north-eastern Turkey

The main objective of this article is to determine key factors that may have a significant effect on the verbal abuse, emotional abuse and physical assault of health care workers in north-eastern Turkey. A self-administered survey was completed by 450 health care workers in three well-established hospitals in Erzurum, Turkey. Because of the discrete and ordered nature of the dependent variable of the survey, the data were analysed using four distinctive ordered response models. Results revealed that several key variables were found to be a significant determinant of workplace violence, such as the type of health institution, occupational position, weekly working hours, weekly shift hours, number of daily patient contacts, age group of the respondents, experience in the health sector, training against workplace violence and current policies of the hospitals and the Turkish Ministry of Health.     

Health and Safety Perception of Workers in Turkey: A Survey of Construction Sites

This study reports the general health and safety (HS) conditions in the Turkish construction industry from the perspective of construction labor. Toward this aim, a questionnaire survey was carried out with 800 workers employed in 32 construction projects in Turkey. Contractors were found to neglect their legal liabilities in paying workers’ insurance premiums. Also, they overlooked safety training and were reluctant to hiring physicians at construction sites and investing in personal protective equipment (PPE). As the real constructors of projects, workers did not attach adequate importance to occupational training. In addition, they were not willing to use some PPE. Key participants of HS affairs such as workers, contractors, unions, and government should comprehend their drawbacks to overcome the current dangerous view of the industry. In this regard, related government bodies should compel contractors and workers to adapt to the relatively new regulations on occupational HS.     

Improving the health and safety of 911 emergency call centre agents: an evaluability assessment of a knowledge transfer strategy

A knowledge transfer (KT) strategy was implemented by the IRSST, an occupational health and safety research institute established in Québec (Canada), to improve the prevention of psychological and musculoskeletal problems among 911 emergency call centre agents. An evaluability assessment was conducted in which each aspect of the KT approach was documented systematically to determine whether the strategy had the potential to be evaluated in terms of its impact on the targeted population. A review of the literature on KT in occupational health and safety and on the evaluation of such KT programmes, along with the development of a logic model based on documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, indicated that the KT strategy was likely to have had a positive impact in the 911 emergency call centre sector. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Workers’ Involvement—A Missing Component in the Implementation of Occupational Safety and Health Management Systems in Enterprises

Effective implementation of occupational safety and health (OSH) legislation based on European Union directives requires promotion of OSH management systems ( OSH MS). To this end, voluntary Polish standards (PN-N-18000) have been adopted, setting forth OSH MS specifications and guidelines. However, the number of enterprises implementing OSH MS has increased slowly, falling short of expectations, which call for a new national policy on OSH MS promotion. To develop a national policy in this area, a survey was conducted in 40 enterprises with OSH MS in place. The survey was aimed at identifying motivational factors underlying OSH MS implementation decisions. Specifically, workers’ and their representatives’ involvement in OSH MS implementation was investigated. The results showed that the level of workers ‘ involvement was relatively low, which may result in a low effectiveness of those systems. The same result also applies to the involvement of workers’ representatives and that of trade unions.     

Percutaneous Exposure Incidents Among Australian Hospital Staff

We investigated all reported percutaneous exposure incidents (PEI) among staff from a large Australian hospital in the 3-year period, 2001-2003. There were a total of 373 PEI, of which 38.9% were needlestick injuries, 32.7% were cutaneous exposures and 28.4% sharps-related injuries. Nurses were the most commonly affected staff members, accounting for 63.5% of the total, followed by doctors (18.8%) and other staff ( 17.7%). Needlestick injuries were responsible for the majority of nurses’ PEI (44.7%). Sharps injuries constituted the major category for doctors (44.3%). Most needlestick injuries (67.6%) were caused by hollow-bore needles, while the majority of cutaneous exposures involved blood or serum (55.8%). Most sharps injures were caused by unknown devices (35.9%) or suture needles (34.9%). Overall, our investigation suggests that PEI is a considerable burden for health care workers in Australia. Further research is now required to determine the relationships, if any, between workers who suffer PEI and those who do not.     

Probabilistic Linkage of Police and Emergency Department Sources of Information on Motor-Vehicle Injury Cases: a Proposal for Improvement

Data on traffic injury cases that includes both the crash circumstances and the health outcome is a key tool for creating appropriate motor-vehicle injury prevention policies. The aim of this study was to explore the feasibility of the probabilistic linkage of police and emergency department data relating to motor-vehicle injury cases in Barcelona. A probabilistic linkage process was performed using local police reports (n = l2,481) and hospital emergency department data (n = 16,733) for all traffic injury cases that occurred in 1997. In almost two out of every three matched pairs for the injured person, at least five of the seven variables coincided, and in 7.3% of the cases all variables coincided. This work has allowed the empirical development of combined methods for the linkage of police and healthcare sources of information at the local level, which are the preliminary steps towards the construction of a data base that would include full information on the circumstances and the consequences of motor-vehicle crashes.     

职业健康监护分析在某金矿职业病危害预评价中的应用

在职业病危害预评价中职业健康监护分析的目的是发现易感人群,预测项目建成后可能发生的职业病情况.以某金矿职业病危害预评价为例,对类比工程、调研数据以及文献数据中的职业健康监护资料进行了分析,发现凿岩工是白指病、噪声聋、尘肺病三种职业病的易感人群,远远高出其他工种,是本项目职业病危害防护的重点;而采矿场破碎、运输工罹患尘肺病的可能性较大,矿运车司机可能会产生腰椎骨质增生和椎间盘突出,结合职业健康监护分析结果提出了有针对性的职业病危害补充控制措施,避免项目建成后职业病的发生.     

鸭子河湿地的生态健康评价与恢复研究

从湿地现状、服务功能和外环境影响3方面构建了城镇区域内湿地生态健康评价指标体系,采用层次分析法（AHP）和模糊综合评价法,对广汉鸭子河湿地这一城镇区域内河滩型湿地生态系统健康状况进行评价。结果表明,在广汉市城市化进程中,该湿地的生态系统受到了一定程度的影响,就总体而言,湿地生态系统结构完整,基本功能依然具备,但栖息地功能有一定的退化,在整体上属于亚健康状态。根据评价结果及退化成因分析,提出了相应的恢复措施,对广汉市城市化进程中鸭子河湿地的保护提供了重要的决策依据,对同类型的湿地保护具有指导意义和借鉴价值。     

A new practical approach to risk management for underground mining project in Quebec

The mining industry worldwide is currently experiencing an economic boom that is contributing to economic recovery and social progress in many countries. For this to continue, the mining industry must meet several challenges associated with the start-up of new projects. In a highly complex and uncertain environment, rigorous management of risks remains indispensable in order to repel threats to the success of mining.In this article, a new practical approach to risk management in mining projects is presented. This approach is based on a novel concept called “hazard concentration” and on the multi-criteria analysis method known as the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The aim of the study is to extend the use of this approach to goldmines throughout Quebec. The work is part of a larger research project of which the aim is to propose a method suitable for managing practically all risks inherent in mining projects.This study shows the importance of taking occupational health and safety (OHS) into account in all operational activities of the mine. All project risks identified by the team can be evaluated. An adaptable database cataloguing about 250 potential hazards in an underground goldmine was constructed. In spite of limitations, the results obtained in this study are potentially applicable throughout the Quebec mining sector.