ACTA FAC. MED. NAISS. 2004; 21 (3):171-178

   Professional article

Mirjana Aranđelović, Jovica Jovanović, Saša Borisov, Sonja Stanković

Institute of Occupational Health-Niš

   
    SUMMARY

    Characterized as people committed to promoting health through treatment and care for the sick and injured, health care workers, iron i cally, confront per haps a greaterrange of significant workplace hazards than workers in any other sector. Hazards facing health care work ers in clude: biologic hazards as sociated with air borne and bloodborne exposures to infectious agents; chemicals hazards especially those found in hospitals, including waste anesthetic and sterilant gases, antineoplastic drugs and other therapeutic agents, mercury, and industrial-strength disinfectants and cleaning compounds; physical hazards including ionizing and non-ionizing radiation, safety and ergonomic hazards that can lead to a variety of acute and chronic musculoskeletal problems, violence; psychosocial and organizational factors including psychologic stress and shift work and many health consequences associated with changes in the organization and financing of health care. Yet despite high injury and illness rates, health care workers have received relatively little attention from occupational health and safety profession als compared with workers in industries tradition ally viewed as hazardous. Legislation, regulations, and even voluntary guide lines to protect health care workers have been for mulated and adopted slowly and they have been in adequate in their scope. From a public health perspective doctors represent an interesting index population. In this perspective, the health of the doctors can be seen as an indicator of the burden of disease of the culture in which they practice.

    Key words: health care workers, hazards.