Planning for occupational health in a pandemic
Planning for occupational health in a pandemic
The ability to deliver quality health care depends on adequate staffing and optimum health and welfare of staff. During a pandemic, the health care work force will be stressed physically and psychologically. Like others in the community, many health care workers will become ill. Health care facilities must be prepared to: 1) protect healthy workers from exposures in the health care setting through the use of recommended infection control measures; 2) evaluate and manage symptomatic and ill health care personnel; 3) distribute and administer antiviral drugs and/or vaccines to health care personnel, as recommended by HHS and state health departments; and 4) provide psychosocial services to health care workers and their families to help sustain the work force.
• Managing ill workers
- Establish a plan for detecting signs and symptoms of influenza in health care personnel before they report for duty.
- Develop policies for managing health care workers with respiratory symptoms that take into account HHS recommendations for health care workers with influenza. (See www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dhqp/gl_hcpersonnel.html.)
- Consider assigning staff who are recovering from influenza to care for influenza patients.
- Develop policies for restricting visitors and mechanisms for enforcing these policies
- Report to the health department suspected cases of infection caused by new flu strains during the Interpandemic and Pandemic Alert Periods
- Establish measures to protect family and other close contacts from secondary occupational exposure
- Establish a schedule for training/education of clinical staff and a mechanism for documenting participation. Consider using annual infection control updates/meetings, medical Grand Rounds, and other educational venues as opportunities for training on pandemic influenza.
- Cross-train clinical personnel, including outpatient health care providers, who can provide support for essential patient-care areas (e.g., emergency department, ICU, medical units).
- Train intake and triage staff to detect patients with flu symptoms and to implement immediate containment measures to prevent transmission.
- Supply social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, and nurses with guidance for providing psychological support to patients and hospital personnel during an influenza pandemic. (HHS agencies will identify or develop educational materials on: signs of distress; traumatic grief; stress management and effective coping strategies; building and sustaining personal resilience; and behavioral and psychological support resources.) If feasible, hospitals should also provide psychological support training to appropriate individuals who are not mental health professionals (e.g., primary-care clinicians, leaders of community and faith-based organizations).
- Develop a strategy for "just-in-time" training of non-clinical staff who might be asked to assist clinical personnel (e.g., help with triage, distribute food trays, transport patients), students, retired health professionals, and volunteers who might be asked to provide basic nursing care (e.g., bathing, monitoring of vital signs), and other inhospital caregivers (e.g., family members of patients).
• Education of patients, family members, and visitors
Patients and others should know what they can do to prevent disease transmission in the hospital, as well as at home and in community settings.
- Identify language-specific and reading level-appropriate materials for educating patients, family members, and hospital visitors during an influenza pandemic. If language-specific materials are not available for the population(s) being served, arrange for translations.
- Develop a plan for distributing information to all persons who enter the hospital. Identify staff to answer questions about procedures for preventing influenza transmission.
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