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In this paper it has been studied the prevalence of subject positives for the markers of infection of hepatitis B virus in operators of two hospitals. The authors have examined the reports between profession and endemic level of infection in the afferent population.
The professional industrial hygienist is a "man (or woman) for all seasons," with the ability to cope with a wide variety of problems affecting the health and safety of workers. The development of this profession, for which we in the United States can take credit, had its beginnings about the time of WWI when our chemical industry was beginning to expand and munitions had to be produced for the war effort. Today this professional expertise that is industrial hygiene is in demand in every industrialized country, and even the developing countries are realizing its potential benefit in prevention of occupational disease. In the last decade, which some call the OSHA decade, we have seen several important trends in this profession. The industrial hygienist has become a manager. He must be able to supervise industrial hygiene technologists and technicians. He has become an allied health professional in that he is doing the biologic monitoring heretofore done exclusively by physicians and nurses. In many companies he has been given organization status equal to that of the corporate medical director, and in some instances he has even been given corporate responsibility for overall health and safety. Industrial hygiene is truly a rewarding field for young people with backgrounds in engineering or one of the chemical, physical, or biological sciences. Several hundred are currently in training at the graduate level, but still the demand far exceeds the supply. The decade of the 80's should see even further advances in the field of industrial hygiene, especially in the development of more sophisticated instrumentation and the increased use of the computer in managing environmental and biological data and programming epidemiologic studies. To the academic institutions responsible for postgraduate training in this field, these rapid and profound changes in the professional requirements pose a real challenge, and continuing education courses will assume an even more important role.
During the past years in Czechoslovakia some 5000 occupational diseases, intoxications and other occupational health damage was recorded. Per year about one fifth of the affected people were health workers. The authors made an analysis of occupational diseases in the South Moravian region in 1975 to 1990. A total of 1726 occupational diseases of health professionals were recorded. In 91.8% contagious diseases were involved, in 7.4% dermatoses--where the most frequent condition was contact eczema. In 0.5% other occupational diseases were involved such as asthma bronchiale, damage to haematopoiesis by ionizing radiation, damage of the nerves of the upper extremities by locally transmitted vibrations, epicondylitis of the humerus and dysphonia in a teacher in a school for health workers. Other health damage was found only in 0.3%. In three instances serious malignancies of the urinary system were found in oncologists who had been administering cytostatics for prolonged periods. The most frequent occupational disease of health workers was in 65.4% viral hepatitis, in recent years with a steadily declining trend. The paper indicates that health professions were during the past period, as compared with traditional ideas, associated with a considerable risk.
Occupational therapy personnel assume central roles in adult day-care regardless of specific program emphasis. Occupational therapy focuses on health rather than illness, on what the individual can do in spite of disabilities. Several of the profession's objectives directly parallel those of adult day-care--to enable individuals to function as independently as possible despite their physical and mental limitations. To achieve this, a variety of intervention strategies are used, including remedial therapeutic activities, environmental modifications, adapted living techniques, and, when necessary, adaptation of the home environment. In this way, occupational therapy contributes significantly to the quality of life of adult day-care participants.
One hundred and twenty men, aged 23--60 years and having various professions participated in studies on relationships between daily physical activity and physical performance capacity (PPC). The determination of daily physical activity at work and of the habitual leisure time activities has been described earlier (Ilmarinen et al. 1980). The determination of physical performance capacity was based on W170, W85% and on predicted VO2 max measured with continuously increasing work load on a bicycle ergometer. The W85% modification corresponds to the working capacity at a heart rate level of 85% of maximal heart rate. Workers with a combination of heavy physical work and active leisure time showed systematically the highest absolute and relative values of PPC. However, although the results indicated that the effect of work activity on PPC was not significant, the effects of leisure time activities on W85% and on VO2 max related to lean body mass were significant. It is concluded that the leisure time sport activities are more important than the physical activity at work in maintaining or increasing the PPC. Aerobic sport activities in leisure time are recommended both for persons with physically heavy and light work.
AIM: Assessment of harmful industrial factors caused by work conditions in a modern milk processing plant. METHODS: Work conditions, rest, nutrition, medical service, and subjective health indices among the employees in a new milk processing plant were studied. We used a specially formed questionnaire; instrumental measurements of microclimate parameters, noise, and illumination at workplace; laboratory physical and chemical evaluation of air pollution with aerosols and gases in the plant premises; chronometric studies determining the workers' activity during the working day location, and physical and psychological body exertion at the time of industrial activities; and assessment of design and operating documents of the plant. Laboratory studies included 157 workers, 1,724 tests, 26 chronometric studies, and analysis of 11 plant's documents. RESULTS: Unfavorable microclimatic conditions, noise, inadequate illumination, air pollution with dust and toxic substances, physical workload, increased demand for concentration, and monotony of labor in mass production professions were found. A great proportion of workers was dissatisfied with their working conditions and many suffered from occupational diseases and work-related diseases. CONCLUSIONS: The conditions of work in the studied milk processing plant may be classified as harmful and dangerous. The flaws in technological process, omissions in design and construction of the plant, as well as its improper exploitation aggravated industrial harmful factors. In combination with unsatisfactory organization of rest, nutrition, and medical services in the plant these factors may affect the workers' health and cause general and occupational diseases.
OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to learn about (a) adult physical rehabilitation patients' perceptions of their involvement in the treatment planning process (goal setting, treatment planning, outcome evaluation), (b) their valuation of occupational therapy, and (c) how they would describe their interpersonal relationships with their occupational therapists. METHOD: Fifteen subjects who had received occupational therapy were interviewed. The transcripts were independently and jointly reviewed by the authors to answer five research questions. RESULTS: Most of the subjects indicated that they had been involved in occupational therapy goal setting; treatment planning; and outcome evaluation, albeit this indication was weak. They also valued the occupational therapy services they received. Eight described positive interpersonal interactions with their therapists, and seven provided no information. CONCLUSION: Patients receiving occupational therapy services are involved in goal setting, treatment planning, and outcome evaluations; however, their involvement varies and can be difficult for them to identify and describe. Because of increasing societal emphasis on patient rights and participation (e.g., consumerism, health professions standards, health care accreditation criteria, health care legislation) and the likelihood that health care funding will be used for services linked to patient goals, occupational therapy practitioners could become more overt and systematic in involving patients in the planning process. Increasing patient involvement in planning may result in more individualized treatment and more effective use of health care dollars.
Numerous chemical substances are handled by persons working in the health care sector. At exposure levels that may occur in the occupational setting, some of these substances are potentially harmful to the reproductive processes. Among the potentially harmful substances are anesthetic gases, antineoplastic agents, and sterilants. The epidemiological evidence of increased risks for adverse reproductive effects (eg, subfertility, spontaneous abortions, congenital defects) from such exposure is not unequivocal. However, due to the toxic potential, exposures should be kept at a minimum, and this may be especially important for workers who are pregnant or are planning to achieve pregnancy.
The purpose of this study was to identify the perceived appropriateness, extent, and types of services provided by occupational therapists to children with emotional disturbances in public schools. A nationally mailed survey was conducted of randomly selected school occupational therapists derived from the American Occupational Therapy Association School System Special Interest Section list. The sampling frame was 982 with a response rate of 48% (n = 476). Eighty-seven percent of all respondents were supportive of school occupational therapy for students with emotional disturbances, although these students made up only a small proportion of their caseload. The therapists indicated that a variety of intervention approaches were used with most targeting educational areas, especially handwriting. The most commonly reported intervention was sensory integration. Many respondents perceived that they could not provide effective interventions because they were not appropriately trained. Perceived lack of knowledge and confusion about occupational therapy's role may lead to underutilization of occupational therapy for addressing the complex needs of children with emotional disturbances. Further research and discussion are needed in the profession to arrive at consensus regarding what approaches are most appropriate and effective in schools.
BACKGROUND: In the United Kingdom, the drive to encourage reflective practice through clinical supervision, as a means of ensuring quality of provision in nursing and other health care professions, is now well-embedded, not only in policy but also in practice. However, debate and critique of these concepts is limited. AIM: The aim of this paper is to draw on research, conducted with undergraduate occupational therapy students and qualified physiotherapists, in order to contribute to the debate about the functions of clinical supervision and reflective practice in nursing and other health care professions. DISCUSSION: Upholding the notion that clinical supervision has the potential to constitute a form of surveillance, we counter the assumption that it is inevitably confessional in nature. A social constructionist perspective is used to illustrate how clinical supervision might involve a complex interplay of factors that dispel notions of predictability, control and rationality. CONCLUSION: Despite acknowledging tensions, we argue that clinical supervision is both necessary and beneficial. It can be advantageous to individual practitioners and professional groups in enhancing practice and accountability, and promoting professional development.
I have traced a personal thirty year journey of involvement with asbestos in the workplace and the nonoccupational environment, one still in progress, in an attempt to extract selected lessons for the industrial hygienist. Lessons for other professions, namely medicine, law and management have been studiously avoided in the interests of the scope of this presentation and permissible time. There are certainly numerous other lessons to contemplate. The movement of asbestos from the occupational to the nonoccupational environment is a case study that will undoubtedly be followed in the future by other potentially toxic materials. We must determine our position as a profession with regard to the tools we utilize, the procedures we follow, and our understanding of our moral and legal obligations to prepare for the often scientifically and technically unsupportable positions assumed by others, including governmental agencies, in their zeal to bring about change. We must discourage the opportunistic distortion of professional practices in these matters, and must issue well considered statements as a profession, statements relevant to the way these matters are addressed by society. We have a responsibility to lend perspective to these issues, to not permit understandably emotional responses to documented past severe health effects in other areas, such as the case of asbestos in the workplace, to carry over into conditions of very low exposures in the public domain. We must remind people of the relevance of dose-response and toxicological principles to assessment of risk.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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