Healthcare Workers
Spotlight
- Safety Culture in Healthcare Settings is a training course that provides science and evidence-based information for healthcare workers with a focus on six competencies. The course is designed to increase knowledge about work-related hazards and address organizational and personal strategies to promote a safe and healthful work environment.
- CDC provides an assortment of COVID-19 guidance for healthcare workers on the Healthcare Workers: Information on COVID-19 page. Link to clinical guidance, home and hospital care, care for special populations, and other healthcare topics.
- How to Tell if Your N95 Respiratory is NIOSH Approved is a video that explains how to determine if an N95 filtering facepiece respirator is NIOSH approved, including required labeling and where to look to confirm an approval number. It also provides tips for recognizing counterfeit and misrepresented respirators.
- Personal Protective Technology (PPT) plays an important role in protecting healthcare personnel. Reflecting on the nation’s past decade of experiences with infectious and non-infectious hazards, the NIOSH PPT Program has developed a strategic approach to PPT research, development, performance standards and test methods, and conformity assessment. Go to Draft NIOSH Healthcare Personal Protective Technology (PPT) Targets for 2020 to 2030 to learn more.
- Pandemics happen when new viruses emerge which can infect people easily and spread from person to person in an efficient and sustained way. Healthcare providers and hospitals may be overwhelmed, and there may not be enough medical supplies to meet demand. Pandemic Planning for Healthcare Settings provides resources to help reduce the impacts to healthcare during an infectious disease outbreak or pandemic.
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Healthcare is the fastest-growing sector of the U.S. financial system. In 2022, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 14.7 million people aged 16 and older were employed in healthcare occupations and about 8 in 10 workers were women.
- Sharps injuries
- Chemical and drug exposure
- Back injuries
- Latex allergies
- Violence
- Stress
Although it’s possible to prevent or reduce these hazards, healthcare workers continue to experience injuries and illnesses at work. Cases of nonfatal work injury and illness with healthcare workers are among the highest of any industry sector.