Work ability among nursing personnel in public hospitals and health centers in Campinas--Brazil

Nursing personnel is essential in hospital, health centers and enterprises and is the large work force in health system. A cross-sectional study was conducted in a large city in two public hospitals and five health centre with the objective of to evaluate the work ability and health aspects of nursing staff. The sample was composed by 570 workers. The Work Ability Index - WAI and a questionnaire with socio-demographic, health and life style data was applied. The majority of workers was women (83%), married (50.4%), and was working in night shift work (65.6%); 61.4% was auxiliary nursing, 22.3% was registered nurses (RN). The average age was 38.9 years (SD 7.8) and the Body Mass Index mean was 25.8 (SD 5.3). Only 17.2% referred to practice at least 150 minutes of physical exercise five times per week or more. 26.8% had a second job. The work ability mean was 39.3 (SD 5.3) points. Age had a negative correlation with WAI (p=0.0052). Public hospital and health centre workers had poor work ability score when compared with workers from another branches. Public policies related to workplace health promotion need to be implemented in public hospital and health centre to improve the work ability.     

The influence of the tasks characteristics in physical performance and psychosocial aspects of workers

The work and life conditions have influence on the health and life quality of workers. Physically active persons can demonstrate a life style that are and affect the physical performance, psychosocial aspects and work capacity. The purpose of this study was to investigate the physical activity level and work capacity in different tasks characteristics, one with more physical exertion and other with more cognitive exertion. A total of 193 workers from an institution of higher education and 457 workers from a metallurgical industry participated in the current study. All participants completed the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ-short) and Work Ability Index (WAI). The results indicated that both groups were classified as having high level of physical activity while only few of them were considered sedentary (less than 27%). However, the group of metallurgical workers had greater indices (82%) than the workers from higher education institution (74%). Overall, the workers reported their work ability as moderate to excellent, suggesting that overall they are satisfied with their working and health conditions. It can be concluded that even though workers performed tasks with different demands (cognitive versus physical), they demonstrated similar level of physical activity as well as work ability.     

The Views of Social Work Students Toward Gay and Lesbian Persons

Abstract

Since it is estimated that 2.5 to 9% of men and 1.5 to 4% of women in the U.S. population are gay or lesbian, it is very likely that social workers will encounter gay or lesbian people as clients, co-workers, and/or supervisors. The Council on Social Work Education stresses nonjudgmentalism and acceptance as important social work values and requires that undergraduate social work students be exposed to content concerning gay and lesbian persons. This study was designed to examine the differences between the views of students choosing a social work major and students choosing other majors. Generally, social work students exhibited more positive attitudes than did students in other majors, even after controlling for personal attributes such as religiosity, gender, age, race, and political affiliation.     

Double Jeopardy: Work Ethic Differences in Youth at Risk of School Failure

The purpose of this study was to determine if work ethic differed for a sample of 152 selected 9th-grade students categorized by risk of school failure and by gender. Work ethic attributes were measured using the Occupational Work Ethic Inventory (Petty, 1993). Results of a two-way multivariate analysis of variance indicated significant work ethic differences in main effects of at-risk classification and gender for dependent variables of interpersonal skills, initiative, and being dependable. Interaction effects were not significant. Underlying constructs indicated that adolescents with greater degrees of risk were less dependable and that girls in the study were more dependable than boys.     

Musculoskeletal symptoms and work ability among agricultural machinery operators

Those subjects whose employment has physical demands present more frequently musculoskeletal symptoms than others. The agricultural sector activities include tasks with important physical demands that may have a negative impact in the workers health. The aim of this study was to evaluate the presence of musculoskeletal symptoms and its association with work ability in agricultural machinery operators. It is a cross-sectional study. The participants (n = 204) answered a self-administered questionnaire on demographics, work and lifestyle characteristics, Work Ability Index and the Nordic Musculoskeletal Symptoms Questionnaire. The response rate was 89.78%. The mean age of the workers was 32.3 years, and 47.1% of them reported musculoskeletal symptoms at least one body part over the past 12 months. Those subjects who presented work ability index <37 points, 87.5% reported some kind of musculoskeletal symptom. This study showed that the work ability was significantly (p ≤ 0.05) correlated to musculoskeletal symptoms presence. It is recommended that measures to promote and improve the work ability are designed and deployed based on musculoskeletal disorders prevention.     

Work injury rehabilitation in Guangzhou: 380 case cohort study

Work injury rehabilitation is a new concept in Mainland China. In 2001, the first work injury rehabilitation centre was established in Guangzhou under the management of the Guanghzhou Bureau of Labour and Security. This paper reviews the profile of a cohort of workers with injuries who received rehabilitation services at this centre. The changes in the physical capacity, daily function, and quality of life of the workers with injuries before and after the treatment services were also reviewed. A total of 380 were extracted from the database which occupied 79% of the total patient population admitted to the centre between 2003 to 2004. The assessment results suggested that workers with injuries showed increases in physical capacity in terms of the range of motion, muscle strength and walking tolerance. The daily functioning by using Barthel Index was also improved. Quality of life assessed with the WHOQOL also demonstrated an increase in the physical and psychological domains. Work injury rehabilitation in Guangzhou is at its infancy stage. The cooperation between the rehabilitation centre, employers and workers is of the utmost importance for a successful return to work outcome. The workers' compensation and rehabilitation policy also dictates the future of success of the rehabilitation services.     

Predicting long-term absenteeism from work in construction industry: a longitudinal study

In this study we examine whether the Work Ability Index (WAI) has additional value in predicting long-term absenteeism in construction industry. Results of the study show that the WAI has additional value in predicting absenteeism, but that the amount of explained variance is low. This is partly due to the definition of absenteeism in The Netherlands, where this study took place.     

Social work as gendered issue from a generational point of view

Social work is a gendered activity in terms both of its workforce and of the students who enter this profession. In this paper we analyse the underlying dynamics of this phenomenon in the Italian context, according to the characteristics and points of view of different generations of social workers. Data from a 2008 survey of 1000 interviews and 50 in-depth informant interviews are considered. Two multinomial linear models have been included in order to analyse the perceptions of younger and older social workers with regard to social work as ‘female work’ or ‘male work’. The results show that the perception of social work as a matter of gender is stronger among younger social workers, and that the younger generations appear to be less oriented towards equal gender roles. Longer work experience contributes to explaining different gender models. The chronological age of social workers, however, seems to be a less important variable in explaining the differences between generations.     

Leaving Science: Gender Differences in Career Continuity Following a Job Loss

This study investigates gender differences in the postdisplacement experience of nonacademic science and engineering (S&E) workers. Using a pooled sample created from the Displaced Worker Surveys conducted between 1994 and 2008, it finds that (1) this S&E work force is particularly vulnerable to job loss and potential career disruption; (2) displaced female S&E workers are more likely than comparable male workers to exit the work force, a gender difference that is conditional on and explained by marital and parental status; and (3) reemployed female S&E workers are also more likely to leave science for non‐S&E occupations, but this gender difference is limited to unmarried workers. A concluding section discusses the implications of these findings for interpreting gender differences in career outcomes.     

Impacts of introducing a new tool for the manual harvesting of sugar cane: the ergonomic analysis contribution

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of introduction a new work tool on health and productivity of manual harvesting sugarcane workers. In this study it was performed aErgonomic Work Analysis (EWA) to analyze the work tool changes.The study included sugarcane workers, drivers, fiscals, and technical's safety at work.During the analysis process, 134 questionnaires were applied,aimed to identify the constraints that such workers are submitted,to evaluate the tool introduced, in order to propose modifications to improve it.The results showed a decrease in perceived exertion and discomfort, without compromising the cut quality. The main contributions of Ergonomic Work Analysis were the possibility of bringing the logic of the worker, in order to understand the inherent real work characteristics, to the process of developing the new tool. Besides, it was also noted that this methodology, based on the analysis workers activity in a real usage, as an application tool in design projects, providing innovations from the workers perspective.     

Ergonomics analyses of five joineries located in Florianópolis-SC, using the LEST Method

Considering the goal of Ergonomic Work Analysis to establish, from the point of view of workers, safe, healthy, comfortable and efficient environments, this study propose to analyze the work situation of machine operators at five joineries from Florianópolis-SC. For this, it was applied the LEST Method to evaluate the task made by the operators, considering the physical, cognitive and organizational work environment. As results, it was identified the main ergonomics problems of these workstations, presenting an ergonomic diagnosis and their implications on health and safety of workers. As result, it was concluded that the main ergonomics problems at joineries are related with noise, with constant load of weight and with the postures taken. Besides these problems, others were diagnosed, for example, the pressure for workers to comply strictly the task stipulated and also the poor training and capacity of workers.     

The Commonality of Difference:

This paper discusses a study undertaken to determine the perceptions of new field instructors about the impact on the teaching/learning relationship of differences between them and their students. The differences and similarities arising in the tutorial relationship often parallel those in practice and provide many "teachable moments" about the significance of diversity for social workers. In a metropolitan social work program, new field instructors representing a wide range of fields of practice responded to a question asking them to consider the impact on the educational experience of "cultural, ethnic, gender, class, and age characteristics, and the implications of these similarities and/or differences for the teacher/learner relaionship." Asking the question succeeded in focussing the attention of field instructors on the significant but often unacknowledged impact of diversity in the educational encounter. A tendency for these field instructors to minimize differences may derive from their efforts to avoid stereotyping or stigmatization. The paper presents numerous examples of field instructors' perceptions and discusses the potential effect of differences and similarities in age, gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation on the tutorial relationship. The study findings have implications for field teaching and performance evaluations as well as for social work advocacy around agency policies.     

Is occupational stress associated with work engagement ?

The occupational stress is associated with dissatisfaction, excessive demand at work and personal factors. Those factors can reduce work performance and can predispose workers to various diseases. Workers' health may be protected if there is encouragement to face challenges, which may lessen the impact on psychological and somatic stress and thus have greater personal and professional satisfaction. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between occupational stress and work engagement. Participated in this study 457 male and female workers of a metallurgical industry. Subjects answered personal data, and the Job Stress Scale and Utrecht Work Engagement Scale were applied. Results showed an association between occupational stress and work engagement (P=0,001). The way the individual deals with his frustrations, or rather the work engagement, is associated with the occupational stress.     

Improving Social Work Education in Vietnam Through International Cooperation: The ‘Social Work Education Enhancement Program’

This paper describes an initiative to improve social work education in Vietnam through a three-year international collaborative, including US Aid for International Development, San José State University, eight universities in Vietnam, Vietnam's government ministries, and Cisco Systems, Inc. The social work profession was officially recognized by the Vietnamese government in 2010. Despite the rapid expansion of social work education programs, there are significant limitations in the universities' ability to provide social work education. The goal of the Social Work Education Enhancement Program (SWEEP) is to strengthen the capacity of Vietnam's undergraduate social work programs to deliver quality education and prepare trained, job-ready social workers. The SWEEP project aims to improve the administration of social work education, the professional capacity of faculty, social work curriculum, and networking technology to enable centers for excellence in learning and scholarship. To ensure that the SWEEP team targeted training and technical assistance activities that were culturally congruent, a comprehensive needs assessment and frequent mid-course evaluations were conducted, showing many shared and unique contextual issues facing universities. The collaborative process of developing social work education which fits the local context can be replicated in other countries that are in the early stages of social work development.     

Partners’ overwork and individuals’ wellbeing and experienced relationship quality

In this paper, using high quality data from the Work, Family, and Health Network in a sample of IT workers in the US (N?=?590), we examine whether partners’ long work hours are associated with individuals’ perceived stress, time adequacy with partner, and relationship quality, and whether these relationships vary by gender. In addition, following the marital stress model, we investigate whether any negative correlation between partners’ long work hours and relationship quality is mediated by time adequacy or perceived stress. We find that women partnered to men who work long hours (50 or more hours per week) have significantly higher perceived stress and significantly lower time adequacy and relationship quality compared to women partnered to men who work a standard full-time work week (35–49 hours). Further, the increased stress associated with being partnered to a man who overworks, not lower time adequacy, mediates the negative relationship between overwork and relationship quality. Conversely, we find that men partnered to women who work long hours report no differences in stress, time adequacy, or relationship quality than men who are partnered to women who work a standard full-time work week.     

Locating Gender Neutrality in Formal and Informal Aspects of Organizational Cultures

This article describes and analyzes the practices that conceal gender at work in the contexts of different organizational cultures. The case studies on which I base my discussion derive from clerical work in two organizational settings. The interpretation I suggest is that regardless of their sex, age or hierarchical position at work, employees regard gender as a personal and intimate issue that, with the exception of pay, does not belong to the sphere of work. Gender issues raise questions that disturb the preferred harmony in everyday life in workplaces. Consequently, the employees seemed to think that hierarchical differences are located in society at large, not in their own workplaces. The analysis shows that age, position and technology shaped differences not only between women and men in organizations, but also among female clerical workers. Thus the results relate both to the practical realities at work and to the gender identities of clerical employees in their organizational cultures.     

Work Design for Flexible Work Scheduling: Barriers and Gender Implications

The purpose of this article is to examine the nature of work design in relation to flexible work scheduling (FWS), particularly in respect to participation by women and men. There is a paucity of research evidence on this topic. Work design, essentially an artefact of enterprise culture, is constructed by the social rules of place, distance and time. Work practices that assume that work tasks are only conducted in the workplace during standard work time in the proximity of co‐workers and managers do not, in the main, support FWS. While there is no significant evidence in this study that women and men perceive the barriers differently when considering taking up the option to engage in FWS options, the study addresses the reasons for this using a large survey of the Australian workforce. This article concludes that it is time to redefine these critical work design dimensions, in relation to existing power structures, in order to inject real flexibility into the workplace.     

The impact of function on work status for community dwelling disabled persons with arthritis: an analysis of the National Health Interview Survey Disability Supplement

Arthritis is one of the most common diseases and a leading cause of disability in adults. Returning injured workers to work and preventing work disability is the primary mission of occupational health professionals. The purpose of this study was to identify risk factors associated with work disability and intervention strategies. This study is a retrospective cohort analysis of secondary individual level data. The data for the study were collected by the National Health Interview Survey, Disability Supplement (NHIS-D) 1995. Community dwelling disabled persons with functional limitations due to arthritic conditions were included in this analysis. A total of 286 records were available for logistic regression analysis. The outcome variable was work status, either working or not working. The significant predictors of working status were ability to lift 10 pounds (OR = 1.64), college education (OR = 0.21), age (OR = 1.03), and less than high school education (OR = 2.48). Thirty-four percent of the variance in working status was explained by the model that also included health status, difficulty standing, difficulty walking up steps, difficulty walking 1/4 mile, ethnicity, and gender. Younger disabled persons with arthritis, who have little difficulty lifting 10 pounds, and have some college education have better odds of working. Occupational health professionals need to look for ways to improve the educational status and functional lifting ability of disabled individuals with arthritis.     

A formative assessment of gender awareness and ability of staff based on the service programs of the All-China Women's Federation: The case of the “3861 My Home” program

In order to achieve “gender mainstreaming” which is a global strategy to promote the development of women, it has in recent years been a major task for the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF) to improve the gender awareness and ability of policy makers and implementers. Thus, researchers should constantly propose and evaluate various possible attempts to improve gender awareness and the ability of individuals. There are few empirical studies on the assessment of gender awareness and the improvement of the ability of staff who have been trained and educated. Research studies focusing on the promotion of gender-sensitive awareness and ability of staff by participating in programs are even rarer.This study presents a specific case, namely the evaluation of promoting social service workers’ gender awareness and ability within the implementation of the “3861 My Home” program. Based on this case, this study examines how to promote gender awareness and ability of social service workers through the implementation of the service program of Women's Federation, and also assesses the quality of the results of this implementation. Moreover, this study also contributes to the literature pertaining to assessing the development of social service workers’ gender awareness and ability. In addition, the study provides an option for enhancing the gender awareness and ability of social service workers in addition to training: The participatory learning or action pertaining to gender awareness and ability based on the Women's Federation programs are able to effectively improve the gender awareness and ability of staff.