Validation of the Workplace Integrated Safety and Health (WISH) assessment.

Details

• Personal Author:
  López Gómez MA
• Description:
  Problem. The Workplace Integrated Safety and Health (WISH) Assessment was designed to measure the extent to which workplaces implement integrated system approaches to protect and promote worker health, safety and well-being. Integrated system approaches are central to the Total Worker Health® (TWH) program implemented by the National Institute of Occupational Health and Safety (NIOSH). The program is defined as "policies, programs, and practices that integrate protection from work-related safety and health hazards with promotion of injury and illness prevention efforts to advance worker well-being". The WISH Assessment responds to the need of measuring TWH concepts and it builds upon a previous measure called the Indicators of Integration that was created to measure the level of integration of protection and promotion of worker health. The WISH Assessment places a stronger focus on the central role of working conditions and expands the assessment of best practices by including a broader definition of protecting and promoting worker safety, health and well-being than the Indicators. It is designed to be completed at the organizational level by employer representatives who are knowledgeable on policies, programs and practices related to worker health, safety and well-being and consists of six constructs: 1) Leadership Commitment, 2) Participation, 3) Policies, programs and practices that foster supportive working conditions, 4) Comprehensive and collaborative strategies, 5) Adherence and 6) Data-driven change. The objective of this study is to validate the WISH assessment metric properties in the nursing home industry as part of a NIOSH funded study to assess TWH® implementation in nursing homes, an industry that disproportionately employs groups identified as at-risk for occupational health disparities, 49% of the workforce is composed of underrepresented minorities and 70% are low-wage workers. Methods. The WISH assessment was sent to nurse directors of a random sample of nursing homes in Ohio and California and a sample of nursing homes in Massachusetts affiliated with the Massachusetts Senior Care Foundation. Previous evidence showed that nurse directors are the best choice for responding to an organizational tool as they provided richer information, than managers or executives, about policies, programs and practices and on workers and patients in nursing homes. Surveys were sent via email in November and December 2018. A mailed version of the survey for non-respondents is currently in progress. Data collection will finalize in February 2019. We expect that 350 surveys will be completed across the three states. Results from cognitive interviews will be presented to show construct validity. Exploratory factor analysis will be conducted to assess the dimensionality of the WISH assessment. Descriptive statistics and calculations of the Cronbach's alpha will be performed to assess the distribution of responses and internal consistency of the tool. Items from the Indicators of Integration and The Workplace Health in America Survey were included in the survey and will be used to evaluate the convergent validity of the tool. Preliminary Results. The initial attempts by email showed a response rate of 18%. Paper mailing follow-ups are currently in progress. We are also in the process of expanding the original sample to a full census of nursing homes in each state to gain a more accurate representation of nursing homes. Practical implications. The WISH assessment represents a mean to measure integrated approaches that align with the TWH® initiative by NIOSH. It has the potential of informing priority-setting and decision-making for researchers, policy-makers and employers and understanding relationships between working conditions and worker safety and health outcomes. Later validation with occupational injury rates and patient care outcomes will clarify the value of worker health in terms of patient care. Furthermore, this paper will provide evidence of TWH® implementation in an industry group that predominately includes low wage workers. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Health Personnel Occupational Health Safety Surveys And Questionnaires Workplace
• Keywords:
  TWH; Total Worker Health; Work organization; Work environment; Injury prevention; Worker safety; Nurses; Questionnaires
• Publisher:
  American Psychological Association
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Abstract or Summary
• Place as Subject:
  Massachusetts ; OSHA Region 1 ; OSHA Region 3 ; Pennsylvania
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  306-307
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20065677
• Citation:
  Work, Stress and Health 2019, November 6-9, 2019, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2019 Nov; :306-307
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2020
• Performing Organization:
  Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20070901
• Source Full Name:
  Work, Stress and Health 2019, November 6-9, 2019, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• End Date:
  20260831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:d509c5c23200112cd4b94021f8a9460c72ebfb10239645f76c6a9f6fa01977b16204866709821ddb27b558f5d3a8708679ff9652935a1382b52438b0b41966ed
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/248717/cdc_248717_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 114.46 KB ]