Personal Learning Zone in this issue

Summary:

FEATURED ARTICLES

This issue of Occupational Health [at Work] features two Personal Learning Zone articles recommended for continuing professional development (CPD). The assignment questions, your ‘personal learning statement’ and your ‘Certificate of engagement’ are available to subscribers at ohaw.co/AWPcpd. These will also be stored in your password-protected Personal Learning Zone. The Personal Learning Zone will help you document your own CPD. Occupational health physicians, nurses, physiotherapists, occupational hygienists and other allied professionals can use the resource in support of their professional CPD requirements.

Pages 14–16 TB – not as easy as a BCG. Our first featured Personal Learning Zone article discusses why tuberculosis screening and the BCG vaccination of healthcare workers and students is causing concern among NHS OH departments.

Pages 32–33 What shall I wear? Our second featured Personal Learning Zone article examines employer policies on religious attire and explains the circumstances where it may be justifiable to impose restrictions on what is and isn’t permitted at work.

ADDITIONAL CPD

The following articles, news and research items are suggested reading for CPD and professional revalidation. Subscribers can complete their online Personal Learning Zone CPD record at ohaw.co/AWPcpd

Page 11. Where an employer suspects that an employee has taken unauthorised absence, covert surveillance as part of an investigation may be justified in certain circumstances. However, investigating an employee’s absence should not extend to the ‘abuse of power’ used by the employer in the case of Brown v The Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis and another.

Pages 28–31. The Industrial Injuries Advisory Council is an independent scientific committee with the statutory role of advising government on the Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit scheme. Its main work is to ‘prescribe’ diseases to be covered by the scheme, and also to define the applicable occupational exposures.

Page 37. City-centre bus drivers struggle to avoid sleeping while driving, a Swedish study has found. Driver fatigue is thought to contribute to 20%–30% of all private vehicle road deaths and severe injuries – making it as important a risk factor as speeding and drink driving.

Page 37. People with multiple health conditions experience poor outcomes in a range of employment-related measures, particularly where they have combined physical and mental health impairments, a report from the Work Foundation has found.

Pages 40–41. Our latest compendium of research and systematic reviews includes research on factors that predict fatigue among commercial pilots, the benefits of peer support after workplace trauma, and return to work following absence due to low-back pain.

Author: The At Work Partnership Ltd

Occupational Health at Work December/January 2016/2017 (vol. 13/4) pp43

Download full article