PERSONAL LEARNING ZONE

Summary:

FEATURED ARTICLE

This issue of Occupational Health [at Work] features a Personal Learning Zone (PLZ) article recommended for continuing professional development (CPD). The assignment questions, ‘Personal learning statement’ and ‘Certificate of engagement’ are available to subscribers at here. These will also be stored in your password-protected PLZ. The PLZ will help you document your own CPD. Occupational health physicians and nurses, occupational hygienists and other professionals can use the resource in support of their specialism’s revalidation or CPD requirements

Pages 36–39 Discrimination in a time of COVID.The Equality Act 2010 incorporated decades of anti-discrimination law into one statute; importantly for OH it updated the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, introduced a quarter of a century ago. OH professionals and employers need to pay special attention to its provisions, and in particular ensure that decisions made in respect of the COVID-19 pandemic do not unlawfully discriminate on grounds of disability, race or age.  

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 here 

Page 5. Guidance for employers on managing and supporting employees experiencing domestic abuse encourages the creation of ‘open work cultures’ where individuals feel safe to disclose such issues.  

Page 11–16. OH can be more effective in improving employee health and wellbeing if it is involved at an early, strategic stage in an employer’s approach; urgent action is needed to address adverse health and work outcomes that disproportionality affect workers from BAME backgrounds; and OH needs to be recognised within the NHS as a clinical discipline that can contribute to healthcare beyond providing services to staff.  

Pages 32–35. OH professionals who continue to use structured manual filing systems for OH records should make sure that their Privacy Notices and data-retention policies are clear and up to date.  

Pages 40–44. Our round-up of news and resources on COVID-19 includes: ethical guidance on handling requests to release the OH clinical records of deceased persons; protecting clinically vulnerable workers; and applying consistent occupational risk assessments to ensure everyone is protected.  

Pages 45–46. Our compendium of recent research discusses mathematical modelling on the transmission risk of COVID-19 among construction workers and an evaluation of two strands of the government’s ‘work as a health outcome’ agenda. 

Author: The At Work Partnership Ltd

Occupational Health at Work December/January 2020/2021 (vol. 17/4) pp47

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