JISCMail - OCC-HEALTH Archives

Hi Sara

Well then we are back and facing a “professional dilemma” which is where we started. But throughout my career I like many others I am sure we make professional decisions all the time and so far things seem have worked for me. But if I give the example of consulting three different groups e.g. employees, the employer and those running the service where all there different groups have different expectations of the service and it is impossible to fulfill all groups expectations and therefore I am faced with the dilemma of have three different sets of views. So it is up to me to decide what has to be done with the resources available so someone has to make a decision as to what can be realistically done within the time scale and to benefit the majority- well that is how I have tackled some situations in the past. But I by no means think I have all the answers but I do try and to the right thing for the majority but also know that it is impossible to keep everyone happy all of the time but you can keep some people happy some of the time (as I have recently had first hand experience form organizing the Scottish OHN conference in recent weeks). So if you are look for an answer I guess listen to yourself and make your own judgment because I know that many nurses that I have worked with over the years are actually quite skilled in doing this.

All the best

-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Sara Werry
Sent: 24 May 2007 13:26
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [OCC-HEALTH] role balance

Hi Mo

That is an interesting point but if say the HSE/DoH etc,the Organisation and the Employees of that Organisation were all wanting the OH practitioner to do totally different things, who is the Practitioner most likely to listen to as the voice of reason (rightly or wrongly)?

All best

Sara

From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Maureen McBain
Sent: 24 May 2007 13:03
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [OCC-HEALTH] role balance

Hi Sara

But then I would say that the DoH, HSE and WHO are all governing bodies and sit within the outer level of a particular model in a paper that was published last year in OH (McBain 2006). But I do agree that some of us may benefit from defining or re-defining our focus from time to time. Because what emerged from my own work was the difference between what OHN/As/practitioners perceive their ideal role to be compared to what their actual role is when it was measured (West et al 2001) – this is currently ongoing work for me.

Best wishes

Mo McBain

-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Sara Werry
Sent: 24 May 2007 10:46
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [OCC-HEALTH] role balance

Hi All

Sometimes I consider that you may be a servant to three masters, the employer,employee and the body who is stating what should be done whether it be DoH,HSE,WHO etc. An interesting example of this is managing latex exposure in the workplace.

Another area where balance is hard to define and can cause issues especially when setting up a service is what proportion of OH time should be spent doing what, we are really good at stating what an OH practitioner can do but not so good in defining focus,priority and need.

Well that got me thinking!

All best

Sara

From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Maureen McBain
Sent: 24 May 2007 10:04
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [OCC-HEALTH] role balance

Hi Jacqui

There is evidence from the literature of the dilemmas that nurses/practitioners/managers face including those working within OH but one paper that springs to mind from an Oh perspective is “A servant of two masters?” by Diana Kloss published in Occupational Health Review March/April 2001 but there may well be more recent articles on the subject if one has the recourses, time and energy to go searching, meanwhile this article may be worth reading.

I am happy to discuss further off line if you want tel no. 01224 86222 (working from home today)

Best wishes

Mo McBain

-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Greta Thornbory
Sent: 23 May 2007 23:47
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [OCC-HEALTH] role balance

Hi Jacqui

Venturing to answer this query I looked in 'The role of the occupational health nurse in workplace health management' (WHO 2001: editors S Whitaker & B Baranski) section 6.1 The OHN as a unique 'frontliner' - this section is too long to print here but the sentence that stands out which answers your questions says 'OHNs are skilled listeners and because of their independent role can often gather information from both management and staff and help to seek the common ground between both when they are discussing matters related to health, social wellbeing and quality of working lives'

If you put the title into Google you will find the book on the WHO website and can download it as a PDF file free.

Enjoy the book and I think 'workplace health management' is a much better name for what we do than occupational health - at least everyone knows what it means and won't mistake us for basket weavers!!!

Greta

Greta Thornbory
Consultant, Occupational Health & Education
Consultant Editor, OH Journal
www.gtenterprises-uk.com
Tel: 01235 770156
Mob: 07778 518 027

----- Original Message -----

From: [log in to unmask] href="mailto:[log in to unmask]">Jacqui Livock

To: [log in to unmask] href="mailto:[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]

Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2007 4:40 PM

Subject: [OCC-HEALTH] role balance

hi
we all "know" that the "allegiance" of the OHN is a 50:50 split between
employer and employee. I was told on my OH course! I have power point
presentations printouts from study days with "balances of care" on them
which say employer on one side and employee on the other.
anyone out there know who says so??
i have looked at the books i have on OH nursing...it just says we are
multiskilled.

anyone know of a good reference i can put my hands on as a source?

jacqui

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