Analysis of labor relationship in the diagnosis of occupational diseases / 中国职业医学

Unclear labor relationship is the most common challenging issue in occupational disease diagnosis. At present, there are three main errors in the understanding regarding labor relationship in the process of occupational disease diagnosis. Firstly, labor relationship does not need to be considered in occupational disease diagnosis. Secondly, labor relationship must exist in order to initiate the occupational disease diagnosis procedure. Lastly, there is an overreach in handling labor relationship issues beyond one's authority. Labor relationship is the basic and antecedent problem which cannot be avoided in occupational diseases diagnosis. While officially, labor relationship issue should be considered in occupational disease diagnosis, they are not a necessary condition. The occupational diseases diagnosis requires actual labor and employment relations. If the workers with actual labor-relation are suspected to have health injuries caused by occupational hazards in the workplace, they are eligible for occupational diseases diagnosis. But it is not the responsibility of health department to judge the labor relationship. When a dispute arises between a worker and an employer regarding labor relationship, the resolution of the relevant dispute shall be submitted to the human resources and social services department or the labor and personnel arbitration committee, or submitted to the court for adjudication according to law. In the process of occupational disease diagnosis, the two reasonable disposal procedures for verifying actual labor and employment relationship involve workers submitting evidence of their labor relationship with the employer, and the employer's verification. If the employer disputes the labor relationship as presented by the worker, the occupational disease diagnosis institution should inform the worker to apply for labor dispute arbitration. However, it is important to note that arbitration or mediation documents from the court cannot be used as evidence in occupational disease diagnosis.

Thoughts on improving comprehensive risk assessment method of occupational disease hazards of employers / 环境与职业医学

The National Disease Control and Prevention Bureau and the National Health Commission jointly issued an announcement on Notice on Carrying out Pilot Work of Occupational Health Classification Supervision and Law Enforcement, which presented a method of comprehensive risk assessment method of occupational disease hazards of employers. This method embraces relevant factors at full scale and is simple in operation, but its applicability and accuracy of assessment results need further practical study. Based on the steps of occupational health risk assessment and proven occupational health risk assessment methods available at home and abroad, this paper proposed improvements and discussed the comprehensive risk assessment method of occupational disease hazards of employers, so as to provide a technical basis to implement the occupational disease hazard classification management of employers for relevant government supervision departments.

Explore occupational health risk grading methods, and promote classified supervision over employers / 环境与职业医学

This paper introduced concepts of occupational health risk grading and its development in China and abroad, reviewed the history of seeking occupational health classification supervision models, and explored the applicability and effectiveness of occupational health risk grading and assessment methods serving occupational health classified supervision on employers. These findings would provide a scientific basis for occupational health classification supervision and law enforcement.

Habilidades y valores necesarios para el mercado laboral del profesional de la información en Cuba según egresados y empleadores / Job market skills and values required from information professionals in Cuba according to graduates and employers

El ámbito laboral necesita de profesionales de la información capaces no solo de resolver con eficiencia los problemas de la práctica profesional, sino también de tener un desempeño responsable y comprometido. Es por eso que se promueve la formación por competencias en la formación universitaria. Esta investigación tuvo como objetivo determinar si algunos recursos, como las habilidades y los valores (incluidos en los planes de estudio actuales en la formación del pregrado en Ciencias de la Información), se corresponden con los necesarios en el ámbito laboral del profesional de la información. Para esto se aplicó un cuestionario, a partir de los planes de estudio D y E, a egresados de la carrera Ciencias de la Información de la Universidad de La Habana y a empleadores de este perfil. Aun cuando la muestra es pequeña, los resultados de la investigación constituyen un punto de partida para el análisis de la correspondencia entre los planes de estudios y las exigencias del mercado laboral, y una aproximación a que el modelo de formación del profesional de la información en el contexto cubano incluye el desarrollo de las habilidades y los valores muy necesarios para el desenvolvimiento exitoso en la actividad(AU)

The job environment requires information professionals capable not only of efficiently solving problems related to their professional practice, but also of doing their work in a responsible and committed manner. This is the reason why competence training is fostered in university education. The purpose of the study was to determine whether certain resources, such as skills and values (included in the current information sciences undergraduate training programs) correspond to those required by the work environment of information professionals. To achieve such an end, a questionnaire about curricula D and E was applied to information sciences graduates from the University of Havana and employers from this field. Despite the small size of the sample, the results of the study constitute a starting point for the analysis of the correspondence between curricula and the demands posed by the job market, as well as a glance at the fact that Cuban information professional training programs include the development of skills and values very much required for successful performance in the field(AU)

Contexto personal y elección ocupacional de la trabajadora sexual / Personal context and occupational choice of the sexual working

El estudio busca reconocer la forma, cómo se realiza la elección ocupacional de las personas que se encuentran en el ambito conocido como trabajo sexual. Alternativa de acción que determina el curso de la vida e involucran contribuciones complejas que llevan a la mujer a a abandonar roles, cambiar un patrón de hábitos, elegir e ignorar sus propias dificultades en un esfuerzo de hacerse parecer competente ante los demás, sin embargo, genera dificultades y mantienen a la población objeto de estudio atrapados en un ciclo de elecciones inadecuados y experiencias negativas. El presente proyecto busca determinar cómo el contexto personal influye en la elección ocupacional de la población trabajadora sexual. Conclusión: A través del instrumento de evaluación OPHI II y su narrativa, donde las constantes fueron el nivel volitivo y de habituación se logra establecer decisiones impulsadas por eventos críticos del pasado, conexo a condiciones de pobreza, dinámicas de calle y abandono del rol de estudiante, desencadena una insatisfacción y un bajo sentido de autoeficacia dentro de su participación ocupacional en roles y hábitos. Así mismo dentro de su comportamiento ocupacional actual se vislumbra una doble identidad "una doble vida" y una exclusión de roles familiares y sociales. Como consecuencia de este rol productivo, esta dualidad genera una modificación drástica en la interiorización, guiones y socialización de roles, siendo mutuamente excluyentes, alterando de esta forma la elección ocupacional, la estructuración de hábitos y rutinas, la ejecución de roles y el trabajo hacia metas, siendo estos aspectos los de mayor falencia, teniendo en cuenta que son mujeres que no identifican un estilo de vida ocupacional deseado, no esperan éxito y no reconocen habilidades.

To begin it is absolutely necessary to determine how occupational choice is made by sex workers. All this unrouted women to decision-making and thereby abandon roles, change habits' pattern, choose and ignore their own difficulties in an effort to make themselves appear competent to others. However, these elections generate greater difficulties among population under study. So we can concluded that they are trapped in a cycle of inadequate elections and negative experiences. Conclusion: Through the OPHI II assessment tool it was possible to discover, through narrative, in which the constants were the volitional and habituational level where driven by critical events of the past, related to conditions of poverty, street dynamics and abandonment of roles such as student, unleashing a dissatisfaction and a low sense of self-efficacy within their occupational roles and habits, as well as within their current occupational behavior is a dual identity "double life" and exclusion of family roles and social, as a consequence of the productive role, where it generates a drastic change in the internalization, scripts and socialization of roles, being mutually exclusive, thus altering the occupational choice, the structuring of habits and routines, the execution of roles and work towards goals, these being the aspects of greatest weakness, taking into account that n women who do not identify a desired occupational lifestyle, do not expect success and do not recognize skills.

Pregnancy and Maternity at Workplace, a Qualitative Study to Know the Employers Perspective.

The twentieth century witnessed women expanding the range of possibilities for their gender; by participating as professionals in different fields and by actively dissolving the boundaries of the traditionally held gender roles and they continue to work even during the most crucial phase of their life, that is pregnancy. Discussing the factors related with women's career progress, the negative aspects were found to be domination of men in senior executive positions, discrimination against women, and gender stereotyping. The main objective of this study was to take point of view of employers regarding pregnancy at workplace, their concerns and challenges and how they place themselves in the whole scenario of changing environment for a worker.METHODSA qualitative study design was adopted by conducting semi-structured interviews for which a guideline was developed beforehand. In depth interviews were conducted with the employers at different levels in different organizations of Lahore.RESULTSClassical content analysis of interviews revealed that employers display unfavourable attitude towards the employment of childbearing age group women in the first place and pregnancy at workplace is not a welcoming event at all. All this negative attitude is due to the cost and HR issues raised by the absences and maternity leave of a pregnant worker. There is a great chaos regarding workload shared by the colleagues in pregnant women’s absence. For maternity leave, cost of hiring a new person and training are the issues raised by the employers especially in small organizations.CONCLUSIONSThere is a great need to give awareness to workers as well as management regarding laws and regulations about maternity at workplace.

Predicting Employment Status of Injured Workers Following a Case Management Intervention

BACKGROUND: The success of an injury intervention program can be measured by the proportion of successful return to work (RTW). This study examined factors of successful return to employment among workers suffering from work-related injuries. METHODS: Data were obtained from the Social Security Organization, Malaysia database consisting of 10,049 RTW program participants in 2010–2014. The dependent variable was the RTW outcome which consisted of RTW with same employer, RTW with new employer or unsuccessful return. Multinomial logistic regression was performed to test the likelihood of successful return with same employer and new employer against unsuccessful return. RESULTS: Overall, 65.3% of injured workers were successfully returned to employment, 52.8% to the same employer and 12.5% to new employer. Employer interest; motivation; age 30–49 years; intervention less than 9 months; occupational disease; injuries in the lower limbs, upper limbs, and general injuries; and working in the manufacturing, services, and electrical/electronics were associated with returning to work with the same employer against unsuccessful return. Male, employer interest, motivation, age 49 years or younger, intervention less than 6 months, occupational disease, injuries in the upper limbs and services sector of employment were associated with returning to new employer against unsuccessful return. CONCLUSION: There is a need to strengthen employer commitment for early and intensified intervention that will lead to improvement in the RTW outcome.

Marginal socio-economic effects of an employer's efforts to improve the work environment

BACKGROUND: Workplace health promotion (WHP) strongly requires the employer’s efforts to improve the psychosocial, ergonomic, and physical environments of the workplace. There are many studies discussing the socio-economic advantage of WHP intervention programmes and thus the internal and external factors motivating employers to implement and integrate such programmes. However, the socio-economic impacts of the employer’s multifactorial efforts to improve the work environment need to be adequately assessed. METHODS: Data were collected from Swedish company Sandvik Materials Technology (SMT) through a work environment survey in April 2014. Different regression equations were analysed to assess marginal effects of the employer’s efforts on overall labour effectiveness (OLE), informal work impairments (IWI), lost working hours (LWH), and labour productivity loss (LPL) in terms of money. RESULTS: The employer’s multifactorial efforts resulted in increasing OLE, decreasing IWI and illness-related LWH, and cost savings in terms of decreasing LPL. CONCLUSION: Environmental factors at the workplace are the important determinant factor for OLE, and the latter is where socio-economic impacts of the employer’s efforts primarily manifest.

Profile and performance of nutritionists in Primary Health Care / Perfil e atuação de nutricionistas na Atenção Primária à Saúde

ABSTRACT Objective To describe the profile and performance of nutritionists in Primary Health Care. Methods A cross-sectional study was carried out, and all nutritionists in two municipalities of Paraíba, Brazil, were interviewed. Information was collected through structured interviews on demographic characteristics, professional qualification, development of food and nutrition activities, knowledge and use of essential bibliography for the work in Primary Care. Results In one municipality there were 28 teams of the Family Health Strategy and in the other, nineteen teams. In all, nineteen nutritionists were interviewed, fourteen of whom were working in the health teams and five were working exclusively in the Family Health Support Centers. All but one were women and the majority were between 20 and 39 years; the majority (n=10) had no graduate training. Nutritionists from the basic health teams developed more public health nutrition actions, such as defining nutritional care protocols and vitamin A and iron supplementation than those from the Family Health Support Centers (11 versus 1; and 13 versus 1, respectively). About half were satisfied with work in general, and dissatisfaction was related to deficiencies in the availability and quality of anthropometric equipment, physical structure and material. Conclusion Nutritionists work in food and nutrition actions in collective health, emphasizing the importance of qualification and practices that better combine the programmatic agenda of this area with Primary Care.

RESUMO Objetivo Descrever o perfil e a atuação de nutricionistas na Atenção Primária à Saúde. Métodos Estudo transversal, tendo sido entrevistados todos os nutricionistas em atividade em dois municípios da Paraíba, por ocasião da pesquisa. Foram coletadas informações sobre características demográficas, qualificação profissional, desenvolvimento de ações de alimentação e nutrição, conhecimento e utilização de bibliografia essencial para o trabalho na Atenção Básica, por meio de entrevistas estruturadas. Resultados Em um município atuavam 28 equipes da Estratégia Saúde da Família e no outro, 19. Ao todo, foram entrevistados 19 nutricionistas, 14 dos quais desenvolviam atividades nas equipes de saúde e 5, exclusivamente nos Núcleos de Apoio à Saúde da Família. Todos, exceto um, eram mulheres e a maioria tinha entre 20 e 39 anos de idade; a maioria (n=10), sem formação de pós-graduação stricto ou lato sensu. Nutricionistas das equipes básicas de saúde desenvolviam mais ações de nutrição em saúde pública, como definição de protocolos de atenção nutricional e suplementação de vitamina A e ferro do que os dos Núcleos de Apoio à Saúde da Família (11 versus 1; e 13 versus 1, respectivamente). Cerca da metade estava satisfeita com o trabalho em geral, sendo a insatisfação relacionada a deficiências na disponibilidade e qualidade de equipamentos antropométricos, estrutura física e material de consumo. Conclusão Os nutricionistas atuam em ações de alimentação e nutrição em saúde coletiva, ressaltando-se a importância de qualificação e práticas que dialoguem melhor com a agenda programática da área com a Atenção Básica.

Long Working Hours in Korea: Based on the 2014 Korean Working Conditions Survey

BACKGROUND: Long working hours adversely affect worker safety and health. In 2004, Korea passed legislation that limited the work week to 40 hours, in an effort to improve quality-of-life and increase business competitiveness. This regulation was implemented in stages, first for large businesses and then for small businesses, from 2004 to 2011. We previously reported that average weekly working hours decreased from 2006 to 2010, based on the Korean Working Conditions Survey. METHODS: In the present study, we examine whether average weekly working hours continued to decrease in 2014 based on the 2014 Korean Working Conditions Survey. RESULTS: The results show that average weekly working hours among all groups of workers decreased in 2014 relative to previous years; however, self-employed individuals and employers (who are not covered by the new legislation) in the specific service sectors worked > 60 h/wk in 2014. CONCLUSION: The Korean government should prohibit employees from working excessive hours and should also attempt to achieve social and public consensus regarding work time reduction to improve the safety, health, and quality-of-life of all citizens, including those who are employers and self-employed.

Professional competency of medical informatics graduates and reform of medical informatic curriculum system / 中华医学图书情报杂志

The professional competency of medical informatics graduates from China Medical University in 1992-2011 was investigated, the requirements of employers for their professional competency were analyzed, and the current medical informatics curriculum system was evaluated with suggestions put forward for the reform of medical informatics curriculum system, including revision of its training target, measures for curriculum system reform, and improvement of confidence.

Employers Attitude for Mentally Disabled People / 산업간호학회지

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to investigate employer's attitude towards mentally disabled people. METHODS: The Lee (1996)'s questionnaire of community people's attitude on perception for mentally disabled people was used to collect data from 208 employers in Busan City. chi2-test and t-test were used to explore related factors of employer's attitude. RESULTS: Employers having experience of hiring physically or mentally disabled people showed higher CAMI scores (p=.002). Especially, employers having experience of hiring mentally disabled people showed higher scores in four components of authoritarianism, benevolence, social restrictiveness, and community mental health ideology than any other groups. In addition, we found differences in employers' attitude on authoritarianism and benevolence according to types of industries and the number of employees. CONCLUSION: We could suggest that employers experience of employing disabled and mentally disabled people could improve their positive attitude. Therefore, we call for various efforts and programs development to encourage employers to hire mentally disabled people.

Custo social de duas técnicas de cirurgia de catarata no Brasil / Social costs of two cataract surgical techniques in Brazil

OBJETIVO: Comparar os custos sociais pós-operatórios da cirurgia de catarata segundo as técnicas de facoemulsificação (Faco) e extração extracapsular (EECP). MÉTODOS: Estudo prospectivo, intervencionista e randomizado com 205 pacientes: 101 submetidos à Faco e 104 à EECP, no sistema público em São Paulo, SP, em 2002. Para avaliação do impacto socioeconômico dessas cirurgias, foi considerado o custo no período pós-operatório para os pacientes, empregadores e Sistema Previdenciário. As comparações entre os grupos foram feitas pelo teste do qui-quadrado ou por Mann-Whitman, quando apropriado. O nível de significância estabelecido foi de 5 por cento. RESULTADOS: Considerando os gastos com os retornos hospitalares e aquisição de lentes corretivas (óculos), o paciente submetido à Faco obteve uma economia média de US$ 16,74, comparado ao paciente submetido à EECP. Quanto aos custos com licença médica, na primeira quinzena de afastamento do paciente, e os gastos com a ausência no trabalho do acompanhante, nos retornos pós-operatórios, o sistema empresarial obteve uma economia média de US$ 0,18 no grupo dos pacientes submetidos à Faco em relação ao grupo submetido à EECP. O gasto do Sistema Previdenciário por paciente foi estimado em US$ 6,57 no grupo Faco e US$ 51,15 no grupo EECP. CONCLUSÕES: A técnica de Faco representou economia média de US$ 61,5 para empregadores, pacientes, acompanhantes e Sistema Previdenciário, quando comparada à técnica de EECP.