Action to Improve the Ongoing Healthcare Workers Crisis

November 1, 2023

Workers still struggling with mental health issues

  • While healthcare workers have experienced a significant increase in poor mental health concerns for many years, the COVID-19 global pandemic exacerbated these worries, causing a unique spike in the mental health crisis.
  • The CDC’s “Vital Signs” report showed that the number of reported cases of work harassment among healthcare workers in 2022 more than doubled that of 2018.
  • The CDC is choosing to respond to this crisis by launching a national Impact Wellbeing campaign that will provide health employers with resources to improve the mental health of their workers. This campaign is spearheaded by the CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
  • Further calls to action initiated by the CDC include building trust in management, allowing healthcare workers to participate in decision-making, providing enough time to complete work with supervisor assistance, and, most importantly, preventing and paying attention to harassment reports.
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OSHA Suggests Employers Use These Techniques to Reduce Workplace Violence 

  • The July 2022 Bureau of Justice Statistics Indicators of Workplace Violence Report revealed that close to 18,000 workers fell victim to workplace homicide from 1992 to 2019. 10.3% of fatalities in 2021 were a result of intentional acts of injury.
  • OSHA has put the responsibility on employers to identify and prevent workplace violence by reducing potential risk factors. Further, in the case that workplace violence is a hazard, OSHA may conduct enforcement activity on its own accord.
  • OSHA’s General Duty Clause requires employers to rid the workplace of potential fatal or serious physical sources of harm. This includes workplace violence, which OSHA defines as “any act or threat of physical violence, harassment, intimidation, or other threatening disruptive behavior that occurs at the work site.”
  • OSHA has given employers a list of techniques to facilitate workplace safety, including developing a workplace violence prevention policy, identifying contractual duties to all those on workplace premises, conducting a risk assessment of the workplace, instituting proper controls and protocols, and training both employees and their supervisors.
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The NSC Safety Congress Meets to Hash Out Safety Concerns in the Workplace 

  • The NSC Safety Congress met in New Orleans to discuss workplace safety. They found that, for the 13th year in a row, fall protection remains the top-cited OSHA violation.
  • Hazard communication, personal protection equipment, ladders, scaffolding, and fall protection training requirements follow closely behind on the list of cited violations.
  • In accordance with the Hazard Communication standard, OSHA officials plan to unveil a new Infectious Disease standard for healthcare settings, focus on heat illness prevention, and address workplace violence in healthcare.
  • The NSC Safety Congress focused on DEI specifically this year, most notably concerns with women in safety. Several female speakers touched on the role of men in opening doors for women in the workplace and supporting, attracting, and promoting women in construction.
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Interplay Learning Introduces User-Friendly Technology to Aid Occupational Education

  • Interplay Learning announced its plans to expand the availability of a wide range of OSHA online safety training. Available in Spanish and English, both general industry (OSHA 10) and construction industry (OSHA 30) training are included in this expansion.
  • Interplay Learning has created a user-friendly dashboard that workers can use to undergo administrative processes with centralized management. This dashboard is also utilized by management to assign OSHA training to workers, track exam pass/fail status, and monitor completion progress.
  • In an effort to help workers earn their OSHA 10-Hour or 30-Hour Cards, Interplay Learning has provided on-demand and video-based exam preparation courses, study materials, knowledge checks, and assessment exams.
  • CareerSafe’s online training provides videos to educate workers on occupational safety and help them earn their official OSHA credentials from the Department of Labor.
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