Ethics and Total Worker Health®: Constructs for Ethical Decision-Making and Competencies for Professional Practice

Details

• Personal Author:
  Rogers B ; Schill, Anita L.
• Description:
  Work has become increasingly technologically driven and fast paced, with long work hours, new/emerging hazards, and rising health care costs. Threats to worker safety, health, and well-being including non-traditional work arrangements and practices, precarious work, uncertain hazardous exposures, and work organization issues, such as heavy workloads, design of work, uneven work hours, and difficult interpersonal relationships among workers and managers are apparent. Furthermore, the relationship between personal health risk factors and workplace risks and exposures has drawn increased attention and concern. As employer economic pressures continue to build, it is anticipated that ethical dilemmas for practitioners will become increasingly complex. A review of relevant Total Worker Health(R) (TWH) literature, related ethical constructs and competencies, an examination of codes of ethics for occupational safety and health and health promotion/education disciplines was conducted. A case study for TWH utilizing an ethical decision-making model for the analysis of key ethical issues and solutions was completed. TWH approaches to protecting safety, promoting health, and advancing well-being are increasingly being adopted. These approaches can reveal ethical dilemmas, and ethical constructs are needed to guide decision-making. A core set of proposed ethical competencies for TWH professionals are identified as a transdisciplinary framework to support workplace ethical culture. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Education Environmental Exposure Occupational Health Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety Workload Workplace
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Total Worker Health Ethical Decision-making Ethics Exposure Levels Hazards Health Care Professional Competencies Risk Factors Total Worker Health TWH Work Capability Work Capacity Work Environment Worker Health Workers Worker Safety

  More +
• ISSN:
  1660-4601
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  District of Columbia ; North Carolina ; 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
• Volume:
  18
• Issue:
  19
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20063718
• Citation:
  Int J Environ Res Public Health 2021 Oct; 18(19):10030
• Contact Point Address:
  Bonnie Rogers, National Institute for Occupational Saety and Health, Washington, DC 20201
• Email:
  rsb@email.unc.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2022
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:511539299a4d7f4a16d528372ac613226be38f3cae68f1d8160840b764b8b57c6b82789a6f4676596f017e600ca2fca87a2d65f241056ff00e8029cc16578cdf
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/222279/cdc_222279_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 695.16 KB ]