Dear Karen,

I have just read your question on pre employment screening....

 I'd be grateful for the groups thoughts/feedback on this one
    (especially Stuart Whittaker whom I know has done a great deal
of work
    with the subject). The scenario is this - a registered nurse, not
OH
    trained, carries out an interview with a prospective nurse for
agency
    work. Part of the interview procedure includes the completion and
    screening of a confidential health questionnaire. Ethically or
    otherwise, can he/she do this? He/she will be deciding on the
    suitability of the candidate for work by interview, references etc.



I think it would be clearer to stick to these points first, before the
discussion widens.

I would not consider it good practice for a person carrying out the
appointment interview to have access to the confidential pre
employment questionnaire (even if they were an occupational
health nurse making the appointment to their own staff). The health
assessment and the appointments process should have clear
boundaries. Otherwise we will find situations (like those described
in Floyds research) where people who declare health conditions
find themselves being deselected along the way, without a pre
employment health assessment. The interviewer may want to offer
the job, subject to medical clearance etc. but the health
assessment should be carried out by someone else (who is
competent to do this - and as competence is so difficult to define I
would suggest that, as a minimum, this should be done by a
qualified occupational health nurse - but this may be a simple
process using paper screening, combined with interview, tests etc
only when necessary).

So my advice would be to keep the processes seperate,  only to
screen those who are sucessful at interview, the report back to the
manager making the appointment should be in terms of fit, fit with
some restrictions or necessary accommodation, or unfit.  Where
an applicant is considered to be unfit on medical grounds I would
always want to give them the opportunity to be seen by a qualified
occupational physician - to make sure that the assessment is
accurate, that there can be a good explanation to the person being
rejected on why they are being rejected and how this might affect
future employment.

An even better step might be to have an appeals process so that
people can obtain a second opinion - the pre employment procees
has been so discredited in the past that it is difficult to have
confidence in the process - but I am straying away from your initial
question.

Best wishes
Stuart


Dr. S.C. Whitaker
Senior Research Fellow
Head of Health Services Research Unit
Institute of Occupational Health
University of Birmingham
Birmingham B15 2TT

Tel (44) 0121 414 6010
Fax (44) 0121 414 6217
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Annual Workshop 10th - 11th October, 2001
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