Skip to main content

All Access Subscription

Get unlimited access to our full publication and article library.

Get Access Now

Interested in Group Sales? Learn more

<p>While the scope includes non-healthcare settings, employee health professionals should be aware of and encourage adoption of new guidelines by OSHA, titled: Updated Recommended Practices to Encourage Workplace Safety and Health Programs.</p>

OSHA Updates Guidelines on Occupational Safety

While the scope includes non-healthcare settings, employee health professionals should be aware of and encourage adoption of new guidelines by OSHA, titled: “Updated Recommended Practices to Encourage Workplace Safety and Health Programs.” (The guidelines can be found at: http://bit.ly/2dnfH3P.)

“The recommendations update OSHA’s 1989 guidelines to reflect changes in the economy, workplaces, and evolving safety and health issues,” notes Bobbi Jo Hurst, BSN, RN, COHN-C, SGE, Region 4 Director of the Association for Occupational Health Professionals in Healthcare (AOHP). “The recommendations feature a new, easier-to-use format and should be particularly helpful to small- and medium-sized businesses.”

Writing in the latest issue of the AOHP newsletter, Hurst said, “the programs are not prescriptive; they are built around a core set of business processes that can be implemented to suit a particular workplace in any industry. OSHA has seen them successfully implemented in manufacturing, construction, healthcare, technology, retail, services, higher education, and government.”1

Key themes in the OSHA document include the following:

  • leadership emphasizing safety and health as critical to business operations,
  • worker participation in finding solutions, and
  • using a systematic approach to find and correct hazards.

REFERENCE

  1. Hurst BJ. OSHA Releases Updated Recommended Practices to Encourage Workplace Safety and Health Programs. Making a Difference AOHP Newsletter 2016:Oct:8