Anne
Looking forward to seeing your report. Your views on some form of
advanced practitioner seems to me to be a very sensible recommendation.
I suppose I would also add to the list you mentioned of sharing learning
with H&S Practitioners; hygienists; environmental health officers etc.
I think it is about which disciplines are closest in terms of subject
matter and approach and who as a practitioner you are most likely to
work with. What we have most in common is a core set of legislation, the
principles of risk assessment and control and the need for an
understanding of interventions and working within workplaces.
Yes there is certainly is a great deal of overlap with other community
specialists but I tend to see public health/epidemiology as a core
discipline which as your rightly say OH has be doing in its very
infancy) which we share with all health professions. I could quite
easily see OHN's having as much in common with community mental health
nurses as they do with HV's or school nurses.
For those of us in OH education this is proving to be interesting times
and changing!
Regards
Barry
Barry Wilkes
Senior Teaching Fellow in Occupational Health and Safety
Warwick Medical School (A-026)
University of Warwick
Gibbet Hill Campus
Coventry
CV4 7AL
Tel: 02476 150457
Fax: 0276 574893
[log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of [log in to unmask]
Sent: 02 December 2010 14:17
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [OCC-HEALTH] Public Health strategy document
Dear Anna & List
I was asked to work on a project for the Council for Work and Health. I
lead
a group which included OH educators senior OHN representatives of the
RCN
and AOHNP to consider the challenges of preparing competent OHN
practitioners. The report, or possibly an abridged version, will
eventually
be available on the Council for Work and Health. One of the
recommendations
of that report was that shared learning with OTs, Physios, managers, OH
physicians etc (this is not an exclusive list) may serve the needs of
OH
practice more effectively than sharing learning with health visitors
(HV)
and School Nurses (SN)d. This was then picked up by the Chartered
Society of
Physios who also endorse amending their curriculum to include elements
of
shared learning.
I await being shot down in flames, but, I wonder if sometimes shared
learning with HVs is of more benefit to those professionals than it is
to
OHNs. We recently held a practice teacher study day which was attended
by
practice teachers for OH, HV, SN students. One of the practice teachers
is
very innovative in her practice and we invited her to give an overview
of
how OHNs are involved in attendance management. She gave an excellent
presentation which included her involvement in policy development,
getting
GPs interested in working with OH by highlighting job demands and the
input
of OH in the development of back to work recovery programmes. The OH
practice teachers were very impressed - I overheard HV practice teachers
muttering that all OH do is bully sick employees back to work. She, and
a
number of the other practitioners in the audience had completely missed
the
point. The words horses, water and drink sprang to mind. An audience
including physios, OT's and OH Physicians would have had a much better
appreciation of the issues and working together helps the client and the
organisation alike.
We have always practiced public health - think back to Philippa
Flowerday at
Colemans. Why then, when the public health register was first considered
were HVs the only specialists eligible to register. There has been
much
discussion about the benefits or not of the SCPHN register. I did the
mapping exercise for the NMC confirming that the learning outcomes for
OH
programmes matched the public health competencies. I think registration
on
an additional part of the register can only be a benefit. Perhaps
registration as an Advanced Practitioner may be a better way forward.
Anne
Anne Harriss
Course Director
LONDON SOUTH BANK UNIVERSITY
On 02/12/2010 13:07, "Anna" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hi
>
> Absolutely, Barry re getting to the heart of what is the role of OHAs,
see
> OH needs clear communication, Occupational Health, March, 2010. I
believe
> the profession needs to spend time working on this. At this moment I
feel as
> though we do need to move away from part 3 of the register and be
registered
> as a unique and distict group. What ever we do we have to develop a
strong
> clear voice to describe our contribution to public health and
business. Our
> message needs to communicate the tangible outcomes of our work with
> businesses. I also believe that we should not stand alone, but need to
bring
> ourselves closer to others in similar/overlapping work such as
occupational
> psychologists, specialists in organisational culture, human resources,
> ergonomists, etc that way the proactive elements of our work maybe
> recognised a bit more easily and it would be clearer about how we
contribute
> to public heatlh esp. when relating to the new PH strategy focus on
> wellbeing, self-confidence, resilience, the impact of environments and
> communities on individuals. We all know that the workplace is a
community
> and part of our role as OHAs is to help make that community one which
> nurtures, engages, and encourages it's members/employees.
>
> I feel that we are small group whose voice is not really heard or
understood
> in the current position. Join with others who are similar in having a
public
> health and business role to have a stronger voice.
>
> Hope that is not too controversial
>
> Anna Harrington Health and Wellbeing at Work Specialist
> SCPHN (Occ Health)
> www.harringtonenterprises.co.uk
> 07816212836
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Wilkes, Barry" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Thursday, December 02, 2010 9:25 AM
> Subject: Re: [OCC-HEALTH] Public Health strategy document
>
>
> All
>
> At the risk of sound 'Me Too; we also include culture on our course at
> Warwick. The problem all programmes have though is 'how much should we
> include?'. I think your comments Anna are really interesting as they
go
> to the heart of the role and future of occupational health and I am
> saying this as a non-OHN (my background is H&S and we are having
similar
> dilemmas).
>
> To me the biggest 'public health' inequality we face is the lack of
> access to OH by the vast majority of the working population;
> particularly those in smaller companies. I suppose to tackle this we
> have at least three options.
>
> 1. 'Force' companies to get access to OH based on their degree of risk
> rather than their size. The law is already there. This could be
achieved
> through a greater degree of enforcement. After all relatively few
firms
> complain about Reg 7 of the Management Regulations requiring H&S
> assistance and this can be stretched to OH assistance (the guidance
> infers this anyway). With this option though you will probably only
get
> minimum legal standard. Other option include levy -based provision
e.g.
> construction industry and by making it a requirement of public
liability
> insurance as it is in some Euro countries.
>
> 2. A more palatable option might be to put a greater emphasis (both in
> education and practice) in raising the awareness of business and
> non-specialists of the role and benefits of OH. This is both giving
> OHA's the skills to influence business and providing awareness and
> education of OH to non-specialists. Yes we need to be careful how we
do
> this but this should not stop us giving managers and employers the
> skills and knowledge they need to manage their employees.
>
> 3. The biggest of all the inequalities though, to me, is the lack of
> access to OH through primary care. Yes I know there are some excellent
> pilot projects like the 'fit for work programmes' but to be honest
these
> 'pilots' have been going on for at least 15 years in different forms
in
> places like Sheffield and Lanark to my knowledge. When are they going
to
> move out of pilot?
>
> To me these point also touch on the future role of OHA's anyway. There
> is such a blurring of boundaries between professions; particularly
case
> managers; disability advisers; H&S practitioners; Occ. Hygienists;
> ergonomists among many others that the distinct role and benefits of
OH
> needs to be defined and communicated.
>
> This last point then leads onto the overlap between OH and the other
> 'public health' disciplines covered by Part III of the register. The
> review of Part III; I think should prove very interesting; not least
> whether OHA's move closer to those other disciplines or further away.
I
> think the transfer of public health generally away from the NHS and
into
> the Local Authorities and closer to disciplines such as Environmental
> Health again add a real opportunity for OH.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> Barry
>
> Barry Wilkes
> Senior Teaching Fellow in Occupational Health and Safety
> Warwick Medical School (A-026)
> University of Warwick
> Gibbet Hill Campus
> Coventry
> CV4 7AL
> Tel: 02476 150457
> Fax: 0276 574893
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> Behalf Of Anna
> Sent: 01 December 2010 12:40
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [OCC-HEALTH] Public Health strategy document
>
> Hi
>
> Thats great to hear, so what more can be done to make OHA involvement
in
>
> organisational culture a mainstream and accepted part of our role in
the
>
> work place?
>
> Anna
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Smolen, Mary" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2010 12:17 PM
> Subject: Re: [OCC-HEALTH] Public Health strategy document
>
>
> And so does LSBU!!
>
> Mary Smolen
> Staff Nurse
> Occupational Health Department
> Royal Bournemouth Hospital
> Castle Lane East
> Bournemouth
> BH7 7DW
>
> Tel: 01202 704215
> Fax: 01202 704513
>
>
> This message may contain information that is privileged or
confidential.
> It is intended for the addressee(s) only and should not be forwarded
or
> copied to any third party without the consent of the sender. If you
> received this in error please contact the sender and destroy the
> message.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> Behalf Of Jim Mills
> Sent: 01 December 2010 10:49
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [OCC-HEALTH] Public Health strategy document
>
> I can vouch for that!
> Sent from my BlackBerry(r) wireless device
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: "Rosemary Shaw (fns)" <[log in to unmask]>
> Sender: [log in to unmask]
> Date: Wed, 1 Dec 2010 10:37:09
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Reply-To: Occupational Health mailing list
> <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: [OCC-HEALTH] Public Health strategy document
>
> Hi Anna,
>
> I run the Occupational Health Practice Course at Robert Gordon
> University in Aberdeen and I certainly have content in the curriculum
> regarding organisational culture and the effect that can have on the
> health of the workforce.
> Rosemary
>
> ________________________________________
> From: [log in to unmask] [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of
> Anna [[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 01 December 2010 10:22
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [OCC-HEALTH] Public Health strategy document
>
> Hi
>
> This document is very interesting and does mark a new direction for
> Public
> Health in this country. It has businesses and workplaces threaded
> throughout
> the document and in specific paragraphs. It places a commitment
towards
> activities that are preventative, focus on wellbeing, self-esteem,
> confidence and resilience. It states that it wants to "unleash"
> employers
> potential as champions of public health, whilst acknowledging that it
> does
> need to bring real and demonstrable ROI. It states that 70% of the
> burden
> of long-standing ill-health is due to MSD, MH and circulation. I think
> that
> this document supports and directs OH professionals to work with
> businesses
> proactivley to create workpalce cultures that improve the health and
> wellbeing, rather than just prevent and manage ill-health. I think it
is
> about working with employers to engage and unleash the potential in
the
> workforce by affecting the management behaviour. There is therfore a
> need
> for OH professionals to look at themselves to consider what can my
role
> be,
> do I need more support/training/guidance to be able to have an affect?
> How
> many OHAs training included organisational culture and the affects it
> has on
> the workforce, I am assuming not many, is this something that needs to
> be in
> the education of future OHAs?
>
> Anna
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2010 9:13 AM
> Subject: [OCC-HEALTH] Public Health strategy document
>
>
>> Dear List
>>
>> The Government Strategy for Public Health was published yesterday.
>> Workplace
>> health management gets a mention, but more could have been included.
I
>> suspect the government don't want to be more forceful in relation to
>> workplace heath management due to the financial implications on
>> businesses.
>>
>> Suggest it is worth looking at this document and then the document I
>> circulated last week from the DWP.
>>
>> I was at a meeting last week where our Dean highlighted the
> implications
>> of
>> public spending cuts on our, and other, universities. It was obvious
> that
>> more trainee HVs would be required and therefore we needed to factor
> that
>> in
>> to our plans. This document put that discussion into perspective as
> this
>> document indicates that there will be an increased requirement for
> HVs.
>>
>> Happy reading
>>
>> Anne Harriss
>> Course Director
>> London South Bank University
>>
>>
>>
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