Improving person-centered occupational health care for workers with chronic health conditions: a feasibility study.

BACKGROUND: Person-centered care is needed to effectively support workers with chronic health conditions. Person-centered care aims to provide care tailored to an individual person's preferences, needs and values. To achieve this, a more active, supportive, and coaching role of occupational and insurance physicians is required. In previous research, two training programs and an e-learning training with accompanying tools that can be used in the context of person-centered occupational health care were developed to contribute to this changing role. The aim was to investigate the feasibility of the developed training programs and e-learning training to enhance the active, supportive, and coaching role of occupational and insurance physicians needed for person-centered occupational health care. Information about this is important to facilitate implementation of the tools and training into educational structures and occupational health practice. METHODS: A qualitative study was conducted, with N = 29 semi-structured interviews with occupational physicians, insurance physicians, and representatives from occupational educational institutes. The aim was to elicit feasibility factors concerning the implementation, practicality and integration with regard to embedding the training programs and e-learning training in educational structures and the use of the tools and acquired knowledge and skills in occupational health care practice after following the trainings and e-learning training. Deductive analysis was conducted based on pre-selected focus areas for a feasibility study. RESULTS: From an educational perspective, adapting the face-to-face training programs to online versions, good coordination with educational managers and train-the-trainer approaches were mentioned as facilitating factors for successful implementation. Participants underlined the importance of aligning the occupational physicians' and insurance physicians' competences with the educational content and attention for the costs concerning the facilitation of the trainings and e-learning training. From the professional perspective, factors concerning the content of the training and e-learning training, the use of actual cases from practice, as well as follow-up training sessions were reported. Professionals expressed good fit of the acquired skills into their consultation hour in practice. CONCLUSION: The developed training programs, e-learning training and accompanying tools were perceived feasible in terms of implementation, practicality, and integration by occupational physicians, insurance physicians and educational institutes.

The Associations Between Illness Perceptions and Expectations About Return to Work of Workers With Chronic Diseases and Their Significant Others: A Dyadic Analysis.

Purpose To examine the associations between illness perceptions and expectations about full return to work (RTW) of workers with chronic diseases and their significant others. Methods This study used cross-sectional data of 94 dyads consisting of workers with chronic diseases and their significant others. We performed dyadic analyses based on the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM), estimating associations of illness perceptions of the two members of the dyad with their own expectations about the worker's full RTW within six months (actor effect) as well as with the other dyad member's expectations about the worker's RTW (partner effect). Results Illness perceptions of one dyad member were significantly associated with his or her own RTW expectations (actor effect composite illness perceptions score; B = -0.05, p < .001; rd = .37) and with the other dyad member's RTW expectations (partner effect composite illness perceptions score; B = -0.04, p < .001; rd = .35). That is, more negative illness perceptions of one member of the dyad were associated with more negative RTW expectations in both dyad members. For most illness perception domains, we found small to moderate actor and partner effects on RTW expectations (rd range: .23-.44). Conclusions This study suggests that illness perceptions and RTW expectations should be considered at a dyadic level as workers and their significant others influence each other's beliefs. When trying to facilitate adaptive illness perceptions and RTW expectations, involving significant others may be more effective than an individualistic approach targeted at the worker only.

Supporting employees with chronic conditions to stay at work: perspectives of occupational health professionals and organizational representatives.

BACKGROUND: Supporting employees with chronic conditions can prevent work-related problems and facilitate sustainable employment. Various stakeholders are involved in providing support to these employees. Understanding their current practices and experienced barriers is useful for the development of an organizational-level intervention to improve this support. The aim of this study was to explore the current practices of occupational physicians and organizational representatives, identifying both barriers to providing support and opportunities for improvement. METHODS: Two focus groups with sixteen occupational physicians and seven semi-structured interviews with organizational representatives were held between January and June 2018. Data was analyzed using thematic content analysis. RESULTS: Several barriers to offer support were identified, including barriers at the organizational level (negative organizational attitudes towards employees with chronic conditions), the employee level (employees' reluctance to collaborate with employers in dealing with work-related problems), and in the collaboration between occupational physicians and organizational representatives. In addition, barriers in occupational health care were described, e.g. occupational physicians' lack of visibility and a lack of utilization of occupational physicians' support. Opportunities to optimize support included a shared responsibility of all stakeholders involved, actively anchoring prevention of work-related problems in policy and practice and a more pronounced role of the health care sector in preventing work-related problems. CONCLUSIONS: Preventing work-related problems for employees with chronic conditions can be achieved by addressing the identified barriers to provide support. In addition, both occupational physicians and organizational representatives should initiate and secure preventive support at the organizational level and in occupational health care. These insights are helpful in developing an intervention aimed at supporting employees with chronic conditions to stay at work.