Emerging Occupational Health Issues in Nursing

Running head: EMERGING OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH ISSUES IN NURSING
EMERGING OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH ISSUES IN NURSING
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1EMERGING OCCUPATIONA HEALTH ISSUES IN NURSING
Occupational health issues are related with the assessment of risk or illness caused by
the working environment and other factors. The healthy work force is an important factor for
the social and economic development in global, national as well as on the local level.
Therefore, occupational health and its safety is a vital option for the growing establishment.
However, in the field of nursing and other healthcare professionals, there are other health
different types of health issues and hazards and issues are related to it. It is important to
acknowledge the fact that there are 50% of global health and workforce are nurses and there
is growing demand worldwide and in the near future there will be growing need of nurses and
midwives (World Health Organization, 2019). In the following assignment, the objective is to
discuss, emerging health issues in nursing, occupational hazards and elimination as well as
minimization of physical hazards and its risks.
The healthcare workers and nurses are working in one of the most hazardous
occupational settings (Ndejjo et al. 2015). According to Australian Government-Australian
Institute of Health and Welfare (2019), the 90% of the nurses and midwives are females, out
of which 2 out of 5 nurses are over the age of 50. There is constant report of high levels of
occupation related job injuries as well as illness in nursing. The type of working
environment, duties as well as responsibilities is to keep the nurses at the frontline of
occupational issues and hazards. There is a global increase of health issues that growing day
by day as the economy is rising, and the nursing industry is considered as an uniquely
hazardous occupation. There is a high relation of the back injury among healthcare workers
that pose a prominent risk to the health care workers especially in the nursing domain (Ndejjo
et al. 2015). There are high incidence of job related pain and injury in nurses and it is mainly
in the lower back pain, however these injuries are mainly due to lifting as well as moving
heavy objects from place to other manually. There are many types of health issues that are
related to nursing and its health issues, it can be categorized into many types of hazards,

2EMERGING OCCUPATIONA HEALTH ISSUES IN NURSING
however the potential cause of potential occupational health issue is physical hazard. It is said
that there are greater number of older nurses in health workforce and, there are certain
potential health hazards when it comes to nursing and working in that health care settings.
There are growing concerns for the older nurses like motion injuries, which include: tripping
and falling, hearing and vision problems as well as fatigue (Phillips & Miltner, 2015). There
is risk of musculoskeletal disorders which could affect the mental as well as physical health
of the nurses (Oakman, Macdonald & Wells, 2014).
According to Miranda (2015), there are involving workplace stressors in nursing
which can be either physical or organizational which includes working shifts, low co-worker
support and lifting and moving heavy objects. The ergonomic hazard cause a potential threat
to the overall productivity of the employers and decrease job satisfaction. The nurses are
involved not only in hospital or nursing homes; there job duties extend to clinics, school and
also in involved community health workers. It is required for the nurse to perform regular
duties which can involve the handling of high risk heavy weight tools and components. There
are certain medical equipments and diagnosis tools components in case of nursing occupation
that can lead musculoskeletal disorders and bone injury. Certain potential hazardous working
situation and medicines could also cause symptoms of chronic muscle pain, spondylitis and
other issues. There are certain physical hazards, which are related to falling from stairs,
lifting patients, holding heavy diagnostic tools that could cause various stress related diseases
among health care professionals. There are certain wastes like blood, faeces, tissues or cells
that could also can be the cause of harmful physiological and hormonal changes. There are
certain respiratory infection and irritations that could be observed if the workers have to work
in a confined place with lack of oxygen (Rim & Lim, 2014). Moreover, the migraine,
neurological distress and other kinds of occupational physiological hazards can lead to long
term occupational injury. Therefore, among the occupational operations, occupational