Commonly Asked Questions about Occupational Health Nurses

Occupational health nurses are registered nurses, who separately observe and calculate worker’s health status with respect to job tasks and hazards. They use their specialised skills to make sure that workers stay safe and healthy in their working places and jobs.

Occupational health nursing can be an independent endeavour or an in-house endeavour. This means if you are the former, then you provide your services to different workplaces that need your special skill set, and if you are the latter, then you are hired as an employee by one particular company or firm, and you provide your occupational health nursing services to only the workers of that company.

A lot of people have questions regarding this particular profession, and therefore here, I shall answer some of the most commonly asked questions.

• Is your work just like any other hospital nurse:

The job of an occupational health nurse can be quite similar to that of a hospital nurse, but unlike the latter, there are hardly any situations where you have to deal with a lot of blood and gore. Occupational health nurses are there to take preventive measures and ensure that the health of the worker is maintained.

• What sort of attitude should one possess if they wish to join this profession:

Just like in every other health and medical related profession, patience is one of the most important qualities that you must possess. It is very important as it is the ability to make conversations with your patients because otherwise you wouldn’t be able to know what is wrong with your patient.

• What kind of working conditions do they work in:

It can depend on the type of industry that you are in. There are times when you would have to spend long hours standing and there would be times when it would just be a conversation with your patient while sitting in your office.

So, these are some tips that will help you understand a bit more about this profession, if you are willing to be a part of it.

Choosing a good health advisor for your employees

In scientific words, health is the level of functional or metabolic efficiency of a living organism. In humans, it is the ability of persons or communities to become accustomed and self-manage when facing physical, psychological, or social challenges.

The main job of an occupational health advisor is to focus on the link between health and work. It is their duty to offer good quality support and advice to managers and HR. These are people who work in a corporate environment and help employees deal with the stress that comes with their work and help them keep their health in check. Like for example, an employee could have a health issue which could hamper their ability to work or do a particular task. It is the job of the occupational health advisor to advise them on this and help them seek the proper medical treatment.

It is also important on the part of the employer to choose a competent health advisor for their employees. Here are a few things that one can keep in mind while choosing their company’s health advisor.

• You should choose someone who is compassionate and is actually interested in helping out the people in need i.e. your employees. There are many people who take a job like this and then end up being very rude and insensitive towards the problems of the patients. It is always better to choose someone, who is interested in this field. If it comes down to it, you can always ask them to demo-work for a week or so and observe how they are performing and if they are actually good or not.
• You should choose someone who your employees are comfortable with. If need be, you can choose a female health advisor for your female employees if you think that they may not be able to open up to a male person.
• Their academic credentials should be good, but at the same time, you should see if they took part in internships and such when they were in college. This way you would know that they have a practical knowledge as well, over their theoretical knowledge. Having knowledge about the problem is good, but being able to convey the solution to the patient and being able to help them out is more important at the end of the day, and one does not learn these just by reading the textbooks.

So there you go. These are some ways in which an employer can hire an occupational health advisor for their employees. In many places, there is a mandatory law to hire one, but every company should have one none-the-less. Helping your employees keep their health in check while they are working for you is your job and one should not try to do away with it.