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I think its all about judgement of the situation. Two examples of drop ins from the last month - one that I thought added value and the other didnt. First one was a very distressed employee who had just been given a diagnosis that they thought would affect their ability to be maintained in the workplace, lone parent of small children, completely panicstruck. Had come away from their consultant appointment with many questions they hadnt thought to ask at the time and ended up in tears in my office. Took less than 30 mins (and it was before the start of my working day so didnt interfere with other activities) to get some basic details, give some info and advice and signpost. In these particular circumstances I thought the drop in valid, even I cant turn away someone in that much distress, it avoided the individual becoming even more panicked and possibly going home without telling anyone what was going on, and there could have been significant implications for work. Because of the nature of the condition this has gone further, got a management referral with full consent and we are now collaborating with managers and HR to accomodate in the workplace. For the individual this was undoubtedly of value, and it gave us an early opportunity to get involved in assisting to manage the health condition and its implications on work. Second one was someone who dropped in, we were all busy so phoned a senior HR manager to complain that they had gone into OH and there was no one there and they needed urgent attention. Cue much panic from HR, for me to find 10 mins later that the individual had burnt their finger on porridge some 2 hours earlier and wanted to know why it still hurt. ...... In large organisations, especially if there are different sites, it is always difficult to get the message out to all employees, despite training for managers, bulletins, updated webpages etc etc especially if historically this has been accomodated, and employees have a sense of expectation (or even entitlement) that they will have ready access at the drop of a hat. Completely "banning" drop ins may be counter productive in a few cases (see case 1 above) and could be very unpopular, I think that there does need to be some consideration of the PR aspects of a total ban, and if it is decided to go that way needs to maybe evolve over a time line. I have an info sheets containing what we will and wont do in the majority of cases (shamelessly pilfered from Priscilla Corrigan of this group, bless her) on a stand outside the office, they get regularly examined by staff wandering through and have noticed a decrease in drop ins, possibly as a result of this and other information exercises. I dont have this on my PC at home, but maybe Priscilla has a copy she could post? Date: Fri, 22 Nov 2013 00:43:16 +0000 From: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [OCC-HEALTH] Open door policy -OH services To: [log in to unmask] I agree that open door policy can cause problems, but if this worker is having a reaction Respiratory/ Skin? then seeing and documenting what the effect is is important at the time. This may only take about 15 minutes and a proper full length appointment can be arranged at that time for the future.The organisation does have a duty of care to conduct its activities in a way that does not harm anyone, direct employees, contractors, public etc. The OH people will want to know that there is a work related health issues as the next person affected may be an employee... Diane Romano-WoodwardRN RSCPHN-OH BSc M Med Sc.(Occ Health)Sunny Blue Sky LimitedCompany Number 06865212 ******************************** Please remove this footer before replying. OCC-HEALTH ARCHIVES: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/occ-health.html CONFERENCES AND STUDY DAYS: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/filearea.cgi?LMGT1=OCC-HEALTH ******************************** Please remove this footer before replying. OCC-HEALTH ARCHIVES: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/occ-health.html CONFERENCES AND STUDY DAYS: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/filearea.cgi?LMGT1=OCC-HEALTH