Dear all

Please find below the reference to Stuart Whitaker's PEM on the Dept of
Health's website. If you wish to contact Stuart for further information, his
address is:

Dr. S.C. Whitaker
Box Tree House, Lupton
Carnforth Lancs LA6 2PR

Forwarded for information by Isabel Cameron, Librarian and Information
Services Officer, BMI Health Services,
Murray House, 5 Vandon Street, London  SW1H 0AL, 020 7593 5369, Fax: 020
7593 5301, [log in to unmask]

WHITAKER, S. Pre employment questionnaire – example (Annex E).
In DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. Management of health, safety and welfare issues for
NHS staff
(http://www.info.doh.gov.uk/doh/coin4.nsf/Circulars?ReadForm; ‘Search all
documents’; type in    health safety welfare issues staff     then press
‘search’. Look for this document, and the associated circular HSC 1998/064
in the list of documents found)
London: DOH, [1998] [via DH ] (Enclosed with HSC 1998/064)
The model pre employment questionnaire (Annex E).was designed by Dr Stuart
Whitaker at the Institute of Occupational Health at Birmingham University
[now BMI, 2002-]. It was developed from a critical evaluation of 147
different pre employment questionnaires used in the NHS (which included an
analysis of over 10,000 questions). The results were subjected to peer
review process by a group of 60 occupational health professionals to
establish which questions were considered to be essential, useful or not
necessary. For those questions which were considered essential the reasons
why they were thought to be essential were reviewed and used as a basis for
this questionnaire. Copyright of this questionnaire has been transferred
from Dr Whitaker to the Department of Health providing that:
a) the questionnaire remains free to be adopted, copied and used by any OHS
b) OHS's who use the questionnaire retain responsibility for its use within
their own service
c) the original source is acknowledged

-----Original Message-----
From: Occupational Health mailing list
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Greta Thornbory
Sent: 13 May 2003 18:13
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: PEMs


Jackie
There are a few pieces of research you may wish to look at - Stuart Whitaker
(1993) did some on this very topic but I am not sure where he published -
perhaps someone else has the reference. What will help you back up what you
are saying are the legal and ethical issues - and quite a bit has been
written about these together with HSE guidance on Health Surveillance HSG
61. A lot of research into this topic was done many years ago - Kelman 1985;
Lunn 1993; . I did my (unpublished) master dissertation on the topic in
1993. If you are an RCN member why don't you do a search on BNI? There is
certainly a lot published but not all of it is research - and it depends on
what you are doing as the term PEM covers a multitude of sins! You could try
www.agius.com and search for pre-employment as Dr Agius has quite a few
references about audit/PEMs/research etc.

Let me know if I can help further

Greta Thornbory
Education & Health Care Consultant
WWW.gtenterprises-uk.com
01235 770156 phone
01235 765797 fax
07778 518 027 mobile





----- Original Message -----
From: Becker, Jackie <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2003 2:17 PM


> I put this question out to the group in early April, but only received two
> responses. Can others help?
>
> I am hoping to change the current practice we have of asking every single
> prospective employee, regardless of job, to undergo the same PEM. It's
> costly and unnecessary for some to face a barrage of tests when they are
> going to be employed as a secretary, for example. This practice has been
> going on for years and no one has ever challenged it. Therefore, can
someone
> direct me to some research on this subject of PEM's as I require evidence
to
> back up my proposal for change. The industry is a manufacturing
environment.
>
> Thanks,
> Jackie Becker
> OH Advisor
> Boston Scientific Ireland Ltd.


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