on Home Services

Jan

posted by admin in Home Depot

Occupational and environmental health nurses live in two worlds: health care and business. Their specialty focuses on the promotion and restoration of health, prevention of illnesses and injuries, and protection from work-related and environmental hazards.

Striving to keep workers safe and healthy, they are as comfortable giving flu shots as they are educating upper management about the return on investment of that initiative. They can manage a patient’s diabetes, explain the Family and Medical Leave Act or work with the Department of Homeland Security on disaster planning. It’s a practice of expanding scope and responsibilities, and occupational health nurses seem to thrive on those things.

“In occupational health nursing, you get to practice independently, and you are able to use all your skills clinical, assessment, screening, counseling, administration and educating,” said Richard Kowalski, RN, BS, MSA, COHN-S, president of the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses (AAOHN). “It’s a very well-rounded role. I’ve enjoyed it.”

When Kowalski started his career 32 years ago in the automotive industry, General Motors had 800,000 employees. Many occupational health nurses worked in industrial settings, where the focus was on keeping workers safe and quickly handling accidents.

“Manufacturing has decreased substantially in the last 30 years, and with more American workers using computers than doing manual labor, and (because of) the escalating costs of health care, more occupational health nurses are concerned with wellness and prevention,” Kowalski said.

They wear many hats, including case managers, counselors, health promoters, disaster-reaction planners, safety officers and business leaders. They also deal with crisis intervention, the administration of workers’ compensation, and compliance with federal workplace regulations.

Health problems cost business about $1 trillion annually, so business executives look to occupational health nurses to help maximize employee productivity and reduce costs through fewer disability claims, on-the-job injuries and absences, according to the AAOHN.

“A lot of our savings are soft savings, so, unfortunately, business doesn’t always understand our value,” said Ronda Weiss, MS, MPH, RN, COHN-S, FAAOHN, senior manager in the medical and health management department at Home Depot. “As a result, occupational nurses are often among the first cuts when employee reductions are made.”

The trend has been to outsource the nursing role and put a safety expert in charge of medical decisions, she said.

“A better model is to have the nurse serve both functions, safety and nursing, because occupational nurses are cross-trained in safety and environmental compliance, disaster planning and industrial hygiene,” Weiss said. “Our role just keeps growing.”

Because nursing students get little exposure to occupational health in school, many who enter the field do so after working in other specialties.

“Occupational nurses usually pay their dues in a clinical setting like ER [an emergency room] or critical care because you have to be prepared to deal with anything but it’s important to have health care professionals in the workplace. Nursing and business are a great match,” said Diane DeGaetano, BSN, RN, COHN-S, OHC, occupational health manager for North America with Merial.

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