Health officers are an integral part of the occupational health service, and there have been studies to identify and improve the role of health officers in the workplace in order to improve the level of health care in the workplace. This study aimed to determine the contribution of health officers to the role of a health officer as prescribed by law and the percentage of health management work performed during work according to their qualifications.
Questionnaires were distributed to a total of 4584 workplaces where health officers were hired, and a total of 806 copies (17.58%) were returned. Of these, 336 questionnaires were finally analyzed, after excluding questionnaires missing the main variables. Using the data, the difference of role contributions and the percentage of health care work performed during the whole day according to the qualification of the health officer was analyzed.
Nurses were highly rated in the field of medical care, and industrial hygienists and air environmental engineers were highly rated in terms of chemicals and risk factor management. The percentage of health care work performed during the whole day differed according to the size of the workplace and industrial classification, but it was generally the lowest among air environmental engineers.
Health officers play a very different role in the workplace depending on their qualification, and they need support for areas of other qualification. In order to effectively manage the health of the staff at a workplace, it is necessary to consider the development of a support system for small- and medium-sized enterprises and adjust the conditions of employment of the health officer according to the law.
The law enforcement officer profession requires performance of arduous occupational tasks while carrying an external load, consisting of, at minimum, a chest rig, a communication system, weaponry, handcuffs, personal protective equipment and a torch. The aim of this systematic review of the literature was to identify and critically appraise the methodological quality of published studies that have investigated the impacts of body armour on task performance and to synthesize and report key findings from these studies to inform law enforcement organizations.
Several literature databases (Medline, CINAHL, SPORTDiscus, EMBAS) were searched using key search words and terms to identify appropriate studies. Studies meeting the inclusion criteria were critically evaluated using the Downs and Black protocol with inter-rater agreement determined by Cohen’s Kappa.
Sixteen articles were retained for evaluation with a mean Downs and Black score of 73.2 ± 6.8% (k = 0.841). Based on the research quality and findings across the included studies, this review determined that while effects of body armour on marksmanship and physiological responses have not yet been adequately ascertained, body armour does have significant physical performance and biomechanical impacts on the wearer, including: a) increased ratings of perceived exertion and increased time to complete functional tasks, b) decreased work capability (indicated by deterioration in fitness test scores), c) decreased balance and stability, and d) increased ground reaction forces.
Given the physical performance and biomechanical impacts on the wearer, body armour should be carefully selected, with consideration of the physical fitness of the wearers and the degree to which the armour systems can be ergonomically optimized for the specific population in question.
Citations
This study was conducted to check whether self-resilience, one of the characteristics known to affect the occurrence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms after experiencing traumatic events, could serve as a protective factor for police officers whose occupational factors are corrected.
We conducted a cross-sectional study in which 112 male police officers in Gangwon Province participated. They visited the Wonju Severance Christian Hospital Occupational Environment Center for medical check-ups from June to December 2015. Their general characteristics were identified using structured questionnaires, and they were asked to fill in the Korean Occupational Stress Scale-Short Form (KOSS-SF). Further, the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D), Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale-Korean (CD-RI-K), and Impact of Event Scale-Revised-Korean version (IES-R-K) were used to evaluate their job stress, depression, self-resilience, and PTSD symptoms. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to correct their personal, occupational, and psychological factors to analyze the relationship between self-resilience and PTSD symptoms.
Among 112 respondents who experienced a traumatic event, those with low self-resilience had significantly higher rate of PTSD symptoms than those with high self-resilience even after correcting for the covariate of general, occupational, and psychological characteristics (odds ratio [OR] 3.51; 95 % CI: 1.06–19.23).
Despite several limitations, these results suggest that a high degree of self-resilience may protect police officers from critical incident-related PTSD symptoms.
Citations
Citations
Citations