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