ROLE OF THE OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH NURSE
The role of the Occupational Health Nurse as outlined by the WHO (2001) in their publication titled The Role of the Occupational Health Nurse in Workplace Health Management (Bilthoven, European Centre for Environment and Health). In this publication the WHO outlines some of the core competencies and areas of knowledge of Occupational Health Nurses in various countries:
Clinician
Primary Prevention
Emergency Care
Treatment Services
Nursing Diagnosis
Individual and group care plan
General health advice and assessment
Research and the use of evidence based practice
Specialist
Occupational health policy, practice development, implementation and evaluation
Occupational health assessment
Health surveillance
Sickness absence management
Rehabilitation
Maintenance of work ability
Health and safety
Hazard identification
Risk assessment
Advice on control strategies
Research and use of evidence based practice
Ethics
Manager
Management
Administration
Budget planning
Marketing
Service level agreements
Quality assurance
Professional audit
Continuing professional development
Co-ordinator
Occupational health team
Worker education and training
Environmental health management
Advisor
To management and staff on issues related to workplace health management
As a conduit to other external health or social agencies
Health Educator
Workplace health promotion
Counsellor
Counselling and reflective listening skills
Problem solving skills
Researcher
Health needs assessment
Research skills
Evidence based practice
Epidemiology