The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has launched a National Emphasis Program (NEP) that for the next three years will step up inspections of health hazards to workers in the nursing and residential care industry.
A statement from OSHA quotes figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showing that workers in nursing and residential care facilities experience one of the highest rates of lost workdays due to injuries and illnesses of all major American industries. In 2010, the incidence rate for cases involving days away from work in the sector was 2.3 times higher than that of all private industry as a whole.
OSHA says statistics indicate that “an overwhelming proportion of the injuries within this sector were attributed to overexertion as well as to slips, trips, and falls.” The overexertion and slips, trips, and falls categories accounted for 62.5 percent of cases involving days away from work within the industry in 2010.
OSHA develops NEPs to focus outreach efforts and inspections on specific hazards in an industry for a three-year period. The nursing and residential care NEP will target facilities with a days-away-from-work rate of 10 or higher per 100 full-time workers.
Inspections will be focused on such hazards as exposure to blood and other potentially infectious material, exposure to other communicable diseases such as tuberculosis, ergonomic stressors related to lifting patients, workplace violence, and slips, trips, and falls. Nursing and residential care workers also may be exposed to hazardous chemicals and drugs.
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