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NIOSH Programs > Health Care and Social Assistance > Program Description
Health Care and Social AssistanceProgram DescriptionAn estimated 17.8 million people are employed within the Health Care and Social Assistance (HCSA) sector. Workers are at risk for illness and injuries because of long hours, changing shifts, physically demanding tasks, violence, and exposures to infectious diseases and hazardous chemicals. The HCSA sector comprises establishments providing health care and social assistance for individuals. The sector includes both health care and social assistance because it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between the boundaries of these two activities. The industries in this sector are arranged on a continuum starting with those establishments providing medical care exclusively, continuing with those providing health care and social assistance, and finally finishing with those providing only social assistance. The services provided by establishments in this sector are delivered by trained professionals. All industries in the sector share this commonality of process, namely, labor inputs of health practitioners or social workers with the requisite expertise. Many of the industries in the sector are defined based on the educational degree held by the practitioners included in the industry. The mission of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) research program for the HCSA sector is to eliminate occupational diseases, injuries, and fatalities among individuals working in this sector through a focused program of research and prevention. The program strives to fulfill its mission through the following principles:
We apply these important principles both to intramural research that is conducted within NIOSH and to extramural research that is funded by NIOSH but conducted by others. Our priorities are guided by our core mission and by considerations such as surveillance data and stakeholder input that document the need for research. To assure high quality, our projects are subjected to rigorous scientific peer review. To assure coordination, we actively communicate across organizational lines and with our extramural partners. In all our efforts, we seek to optimize the quality, relevance, and impact of NIOSH-funded activities in the HCSA sector. The health care sector has always been an important priority area for NIOSH. Together with the rest of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), NIOSH has worked to prevent occupational transmission of infectious diseases to health care workers (HCWs). Especially since the advent of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) epidemic in the late 1980s, prevention of needlestick injuries and transmission of bloodborne pathogens (BBPs) has been a key priority. Encouraging adoption of engineering controls, such as needleless and safe needle systems has been a major focus, as has been vaccination against Hepatitis B. NIOSH has also worked together with the rest of CDC to develop multidisciplinary guidelines to prevent airborne transmission of diseases such as tuberculosis (TB). NIOSH has worked to prevent back and other musculoskeletal injuries, another important problem of the HCSA sector. Stress and fatigue associated with organization of work has been an important priority, as has been the elimination of violence in the workplace. Reducing hazardous exposures, such as to chemotherapeutic and anesthetic agents, has also been an important concern. Reductions in incidence of latex allergy have been an important achievement.
Page last updated: July 30, 2008
Page last reviewed: October 20, 2008 Content Source: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Division of Respiratory Disease Studies |
NIOSH Program:Health Care and Social Assistance |
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