[The role of workplace health promotion in the concept of corporate social responsibility]. / Promocja zdrowia w miejscu pracy w koncepcji spolecznej odpowiedzialnosci biznesu (CSR).

Workplace health promotion (WHP) is an idea that was conceived over 25 years ago. At its very core is the wellbeing of employees. The development and dissemination of this notion, as well as the implementation of its basic principles have always been challenged by various theories and practices derived from the field of human resources management. The corporate social responsibility (CSR) is one of such new concepts promulgated within the European Union Based on the literature review, especially European Commission documents, articles retrieved in the EBSCO database, guidelines and guidebooks published by the CSR Forum, other NGOs active in the field, and the publications of the Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, the author makes an attempt to compare these two ideas and discuss the coherence between their assumptions. The primary hypothesis was that WHP is an element of CSR. The comparison between CSR and WHP concepts confirm a hypothesis that the latter is an element of the former, which means that activities aimed at taking care of health and well-being of employees contribute to the creation of a socially responsible company. It indicates that the implementation of both ideas requires multidisciplinary and holistic approach. In addition, the role of social dialog and workers' participation in the company management are strongly emphasized.

Opinions of Polish occupational medicine physicians on workplace health promotion.

OBJECTIVES: According to the current Polish legislation on occupational health services, occupational medicine physicians should perform workplace health promotion (WHP) activities as a part of their professional work. The concept of workplace health promotion or health promotion programs, however, has not been defined in this legislation in any way. Therefore, two essential questions arise. First, what is the physicians' attitude towards workplace health issues and second, what is actually carried out under the label of health promotion? The main objective of the research described in this paper was to answer these questions. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The survey was carried out by the National Center for Workplace Health Promotion in 2002. A questionnaire prepared by the Center for the purpose of this survey was sent to a random sample of occupational medicine physicians. RESULTS: The results of the survey showed that 53% of occupational medicine physicians consider WHP just as a new name for prophylactics. On the other hand almost all of the respondents (94%) agree that occupational medicine physicians should perform WHP activities and find them useful in improving patients' health (78%). The main obstacle for the development of this activity in the perception of physicians is the lack of interest in workplace health promotion among employers (86%). CONCLUSIONS: In the modern understanding of workplace health promotion concept this type of intervention includes not only safety measures and health education, but also a profound organizational change that allows employers, employees and social partners to improve wellbeing of people at work. Each of such projects should facilitate changes necessary to create a health promoting workplace. It also needs a skilled leader--well trained and aware of a multidisciplinary dimension of WHP interventions. Occupational medicine specialists should become natural partners of employers and employees. The majority of the occupational medicine physicians, however, are not sufficiently prepared to carry out workplace health promotion programs.

[Health promotion activities of occupational medicine physicians at the workplace]. / Aktywnosc lekarzy sluzby medycyny pracy w zakresie promowania zdrowia pracujacych.

BACKGROUND: The authors address the issue of workplace health promotion (WHP) activities among occupational medicine physicians in Poland. In the analysis performed the provisions of the Occupational Health Services Act as well as the conclusions inferred from the most recent WHP survey were taken into account. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The data presented in this paper result from the 2002 survey carried out by the National Centre for Workplace Health Promotion on a random sample of 325 occupational medicine physicians. RESULTS: The survey revealed that occupational medicine physicians mostly prefer individual-oriented activities such as health education of individual patients during medical examinations (86%), typically medical interventions like vaccinations (71%), or comprehensive medical checkups (53%). A modern concept of the WHP-related activities is not so popular. For example, health education for large groups of employees is undertaken by 16% of physicians, comprehensive health-related behavior-modification programs by 7%, and projects with the participation of local communities by only 3%. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of occupational medicine physicians do not implement the workplace health promotion in line with the modern concept of activities in this domain. They focus more on health education and medical prophylactics. There is a need to provide this group of physicians with a comprehensive training to develop their skills to initiate and coordinate setting-oriented projects and thus advance their activities in this field.