NORA Symposium 2006 Sector Workshops

 Workshop Index 

Health Care and Social Assistance

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
  • Including drugs
  • Material life cycle
• Disaster Preparedness  6
• Violence  6
• International Work Force / Special Populations  5
  • Literacy
• Indoor air quality  3
• Human Factors, User based design  3
• HC delivery to injured workers / Workers Comp  2
• Work / Life  1
  • Substance Abuse
• Non-HCW providing HC (teachers)