The Healthcare and Social Assistance Sector workshop was held at the NORA Symposium on April 20, 2006. It was opened by David Weissman, MD, Sector Manager. Each person in attendance was asked to introduce themselves, state their interest and sign an attendance sheet including contact information and interest on serving on the Research Council. 41 signed the attendance sheet.
Teri Palermo provided a presentation which included an overview of the 2nd decade of NORA, plans for establishing the HCSA research council, background information on the sector, and listing of most common themes received as input into the NORA Docket.
The next portion of the workshop was conducted by Marian Condon from the American Nurses Association. With the list from the docket as a starting point, the audience was asked to provide their ideas on gaps and needs with in the sector. A wide range of topics was included in the discussion and added to the list. A multi-voting process was used to prioritize the list. Each person was given 8 dots to use to vote on the topics they considered most important. One topic could receive as many of the votes as the person voting wanted. This resulted in a prioritized list.
Below is the list of topics and the number of votes received in descending order:
Organization of Work 53
Shift work / Irregular hours / Fatigue / Stress / Mental health / Patient Flow
Turnover issues
Mandatory overtime
Evidence-based workload limits
Safety Culture 34
Not sacrificing worker for patient
Management commitment
Ethical Management
R2P Barriers, Barriers to Diffusion, capture best practices including from other countries 27
Ergonomic Issues and Injuries 25
Safe Patient handling, MSDs, Slips, trips, falls
Population Obesity
Workers not directly providing HC (lab animal handlers)
Others providing HC (therapists)
Intervention Effectiveness 18
Impact of Legislation, Unionization, etc.
Infectious diseases 17
PPE
Infection Control
Non-traditional work settings (i.e., home healthcare) 14
Uncontrolled home environment
Outdoor environment / MVAs
OSH training of HCWS, including students and others in pre-service stages 13
New and Emerging Technologies 11
Applying new technologies to health and safety
Need new solutions to old problems
Nanotech / hazards of new technologies
Cross agency collaboration – CMS, JCAHO 11
Chemical exposure (i.e., waste gases, disinfectants) 8
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