Total Worker Health®: more implications for the occupational health nurse

Details

• Personal Author:
  Chosewood, L. Casey ; Schill, Anita L.
• Description:
  As co-managers of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Total Worker Health (TWH) Program, we read the Campbell and Burns article titled "Total Worker Health Implications for the Occupational Health Nurse" published in the July issue with great interest. We are delighted that TWH resonates so strongly with many of our stakeholders, especially occupational health nurses, who, we believe, play a critically important role in the health of working Americans. Therefore, we take this opportunity to more fully describe TWH concepts and expand upon four points to more fully inform all Journal readers about TWH efforts at NIOSH. First, TWH is not synonymous with wellness programs. This misunderstanding has been so common that recently (July 2015) the definition of TWH was revised to more clearly distinguish the TWH approach from that of wellness programs that focus primarily on worker health-related behaviors. The revised definition is, A Total Worker Health (TWH) approach 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. Simply put, the TWH approach integrates workplace interventions that protect workers' safety and health with activities that advance their overall well-being. The TWH approach always prioritizes a hazard-free work environment that protects the safety and health of all workers. Simultaneously, the approach advocates integration of all organizational policies, programs, and practices that contribute to worker safety, health, and well-being, including those relevant to the control of hazards and exposures, the organization of work, compensation and benefits, work-life management, a health-supporting built environment, and well-being supports. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Behavior Hazardous Substances Health Promotion Occupational Health Safety Safety Management Staff Development
• Keywords:
  Accident-prevention Disease-prevention Health-hazards Health-programs Health-protection Injury-prevention Occupational-health-programs Occupational-safety-programs Safety-practices Safety-programs Total-Worker-Health Work-operations Work-organization Work-practices Worker-health

  More +
• ISSN:
  2165-0799
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  District of Columbia ; Georgia ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 4
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  OD - Office of the Director
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  4-5
• Volume:
  64
• Issue:
  1
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20047448
• Citation:
  Workplace Health Saf 2016 Jan; 64(1):4-5
• Contact Point Address:
  Anita L. Schill, Senior Science Advisor to the NIOSH Director, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, 395 E Street, SW, Suite 9200, Washington, DC 20201
• Email:
  aschill@cdc.gov
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2016
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  Workplace Health & Safety
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:0608708e6d6b6316f3d3e601197e1dd2a272c3b1730c8fc55aa2ae004ad94de23146fcf5b70619ac42c6e75df420ba334399317a0b38af9e3d882efa424d21ce
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/202508/cdc_202508_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 388.96 KB ]