OSHA Initiative to Help Keep Nurses Safer

OSHA To Go After Hospitals For Ergonomic Hazards                    

By VERONICA VOLK 

Hospitals could be penalized by the federal Occupation Safety and Hazard Administration for risking injury to nurses. OSHA announced it intends to issue fines for ergonomic hazards in hospitals. The nursing profession has the highest rate of on-the-job injuries of any other in the country.

Jennifer Chesebro is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Nurse Practitioning at Brockport. She says she thinks hospitals want to do more to protect nurses, and this push from OSHA might incentivize them to do so.

"I think this encouragement, this great website OSHA has talking about how important it is, and how important it is to try to protect our nurses from all the injuries, how many injuries there really are, and things that can be done to help: I hope that makes a difference. I think it might."

Chesebro says she sees physical therapists used in training new hospital employees, but that does not go far enough. OSHA announced it will partly focus on whether or not hospitals utilize equipment to help nurses move patients.

Extreme Worker Surveillance a Cause of Illness

These Workers Have a New Demand: Stop Watching Us

How workplace surveillance has become a menace to health and safety.

Jessica Bruder

May 27, 2015   |    This article appeared in the June 15, 2015 edition of The Nation

(Credit: Allie Whitehead)

Four years ago, I was out jogging with an old friend when she told me a puzzling story: Her longtime UPS driver had just reappeared after more than a monthlong absence. He’d been hospitalized for stress, she told me.
Stress? How stressful could that job be? So I asked to meet him.

Over coffee, the deliveryman, whom I’ll call Bill (he asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation from the company), explained that United Parcel Service had been upgrading its systems for tracking employees. Now the truck he drove was full of sensors. They reported when he opened the bulkhead door. When he backed up. When his foot was on the brake. When he was idling. When he buckled his safety belt. A high-resolution stream of data, including all that information and his GPS coordinates, flowed back to the UPS offices. The system is called “telematics.”

Click here to read on.

The Secret to Lasting Community Change

Moving TEDx Talk by Mozart Guerrier stressing most hopeful paths in community organizing will be forged with and based upon interpersonal trust.

Auto Workers, Isocyanates, and Breathing Problems

Are you an auto worker or former auto worker who has trouble breathing?   Look at this article on the health effects of isocyanate exposure for workers who make car seat cushions: What's Making These Selma, Alabama Auto Parts Workers So Sick?

Resources on Popular Education

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Resources for Conducting Worker-Centered Research

Hazard-Mapping and Workplace Risk-Mapping

NYCOSH Publication on Broken Workers' Comp System

New York State Injured Workers Speak Out About a Failing NYS Workers' Compensation System