This is a mentored career development award application to develop knowledge and skills in health services management with the objective of integrating occupational health psychology concepts with occupational injuries of health care workers and patient safety. The training goals, which will be met through intense mentorship, self-directed readings, coursework, and mentored research experiences are threefold: (1) To increase knowledge of the impact of occupational health outcomes in health care contexts, including occupational illnesses and injuries, (2) to receive training in the issues of primary importance for health services management and health care quality with particular attention to links between work process and occupational health in health care, and (3) to conduct research assists in understanding the extent of consequences of workarounds and burnout for the health care workforce, with particular attention to the occupational health of health care professionals. As such, as part of the award, a survey study of nurses in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) system is planned, investigating the manner in which nursing workarounds and workforce burnout are associated with medical errors, medical error reporting, and occupational injuries and illnesses of nurses. The proposed mentoring and research plan support the mission of NIOSH in three ways. First, the study seeks to better understand the early markers of occupational injuries and illnesses of health services workers through a study of workarounds and burnout as causes of occupational health outcomes. Second, this study could lead to interventions designed to address occupational health of nurses by addressing the manner in which nursing work is redesigned. Finally, this study aims at improving the measurement of occupational illnesses and injuries among health care workers and measurement of the workarounds which can lead to high quality future research in these areas. This project is relevant to public health in three significant ways. First, it seeks to understand the causes of occupational health of nurses; such research may help to understand occupation health of other occupations. Second, the study is concerned with patient safety, which impacts health of those in acute hospital settings. Finally, it seeks to better understand mental health through the study of burnout.
| Halbesleben, Jonathon R B; Leroy, Hannes; Dierynck, Bart et al. (2013) Living up to safety values in health care: the effect of leader behavioral integrity on occupational safety. J Occup Health Psychol 18:395-405 |
