The Summer issue of OHSAH's Health & Safety News is now available. Inside, you'll find articles on latex/non-latex glove use; the Home and Community Care Conference; our newest pilot project, COSHARE; Code White Response at Seven Oaks Mental Facility; as well as updates from our education program (HELP), tips on preventative wheelchair maintenance, and links to new reports and publications.

Click here to view the current issue.

OHSAH is proud to acknowledge the publication of two new research articles. To view the article abstracts, please click on the links below.

1) Work-related injury among Direct Care occupations in British Columbia, Canada
- Published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine / American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

2) Occupational injury among cooks and food service workers in the healthcare sector
- Published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine.

Due to a reduced number of visitors, as of July 1st 2007, OHSAH will no longer be offering the Latex Database. Though access to the database will not be available directly from our website, the information currently stored in the Latex Database will not be erased and will be accessible through request.

Should you have any questions or concerns regarding the removal of this service, or to request access to the database following its removal from the OHSAH website, please contact us.

OHSAH is constantly working to ensure that all of our published materials, either in print or on the web, are of the highest quality possible. If you are experiencing poor display of this e-Update newsletter, or have feedback regarding any of our publications, please contact us.

Workplace-related mental illness is becoming an increasingly serious problem for Canadian hospitals. Though preventable, there is a lack of information available about the various stressors that have the greatest impact on the mental health of healthcare workers in BC.

To address this issue, OHSAH’s Mental Health department, in cooperation with UBC, SFU, UNBC, BCNU, and HEU, is managing the Changing the Workplace project, a five-year study focusing on improving the mental health of frontline healthcare workers. This initiative focuses on RNs, RPNs, LPNs, care aides, and unit clerks in acute care settings from 38 randomly selected acute care units in 18 hospitals across three health authorities (VCH, FH, and IH).

In the study’s first year, focus groups were conducted to outline key work stressors facing frontline healthcare workers. From this data, we developed a survey in which a variety of mental and physical well-being factors are measured. Informed consent is needed from all eligible participants and collection is currently ongoing. Survey administration commenced in late June 2007 and we expect it to continue into early Fall. Data from these surveys will form the foundation of customized unit level interventions identified by each participating unit team, which will comprise the next step of the project in late 2007.

Results from the surveys, as well as descriptions of each unit intervention and the lessons learned from our experiences will be made available on the OHSAH website. If you would like additional information about the project, or to be added to our contact database to receive updates and reports, please visit www.ohsah.bc.ca.

In 2002, development of the Workplace Health Indicator Tracking and Evaluation (WHITE™) Database began. In 2004 it was introduced into four of BC’s six health authorities: Fraser Health, Interior Health, Northern Health and Vancouver Island Health Authority. In some health authorities, the WHITE system replaced paper-based systems, while in others it replaced MS Excel spreadsheets and MS Access databases that provided some level of tracking but nothing as comprehensive as the WHITE Database. OHSAH and the health authorities were breaking exciting new ground; however, developing and implementing an entirely new system meant learning important lessons as the database was put to use. Some of these lessons include the need for more extensive collaboration in the development of the system, better screen layouts, less mouse-clicking, and better reporting.

In addition to the evolution of the WHITE Database from a functionality and usability perspective, there have been significant advancements in web development technologies over the last several years. As a result, OHSAH is embarking on an extensive redesign of the system to update its technology and functionality. The most obvious changes will be the look and feel of the system, resulting in less clutter, easier navigation, more process workflow/triggers, and simpler, more powerful reporting. The new technology will not be obvious to most users, but will make the system faster and more powerful.

The redesign of WHITE is no easy task and will require extensive analysis, focus group discussions (for each module), and the documentation and agreement with our partners before development begins. OHSAH is aiming for a release date of late 2008 but we will keep all our stakeholders informed of this progress.

In 2005, the World Health Organization launched a worldwide intiative, Clean Care is Safer Care. In response, Canada has partnered up with the Global Patient Safety Challenge to promote Canada's Hand Hygiene Campaign (2007), designed to raise awareness and to promote the importance of proper hand hygiene within healthcare settings. The campaign was introduced recently in Edmonton, and will officially be launched during the Canadian Healthcare Safety Symposium in Ottawa, October 10-13, 2007. The campaign will offer events and activities that will educate and encourage Canadians to adopt effective hand hygiene practices. For more information, please visit www.handhygiene.ca.