All Nurses should be incredibly proud of their efforts, no matter what they do, or how they do it. There are so many specialities in the Nursing profession, and each and every one makes a difference to people’s lives. This is why it is important to take some time out and reflect on history, and to ponder on what International Nurses Day means.
May 12th is very poignant to me personally. Not only is this Florence Nightingale’s birthdate, but it is also the birthdate of my youngest daughter [who is entering into the Nursing profession], and it was also on May 12th 1991 when I embarked on my own Nursing career pathway.
Over the years, as a Registered General Nurse and a Registered Occupational Health Nurse, I have had the opportunity to develop a wide range of skills having gained a vast amount of exposure to a variety of workplace settings. I have worked within the NHS, public and private sectors, and have witnessed first-hand how some health detriments can significantly affect our quality of life, and potentially our livelihood. Health promotion and health education has always been a passion of mine, and I truly believe that in order to do a great job, to be happy in your job, and to be the best that you can be, our own physical and psychological wellbeing is paramount.
I have always naturally promoted this, and when an opportunity arose to enter into Occupational Health Nursing in 2002, I jumped at it. That was 20 years ago and although it has taken a lot of self-discipline and further structured formal learning, to include my Specialist Practitioner Degree in Occupational Health Nursing, it has been an incredibly worthwhile journey. I feel privileged to be part of the Occupational Health world where I have the opportunity to influence and be part of positive change.
What does Occupational Health Nursing Involve?
As an Occupational Health Nurse, I am incredibly lucky to be doing a job that I love! Not only can I practise what I am passionate about, I get great satisfaction in helping our “working communities” to remain safe and healthy at work, [and at home too]. My job allows me to support those, who despite having health detriments, to continue to work; being able to support others to make changes and in seeing the benefits unfold compliments the drive that I have in ensuring as best as I can the health and wellbeing of our working populations.
Some may perceive Occupational Health Nursing as not being as “clinically hands on” as a traditional Nursing role, but there is no doubt that Occupational Health Nurses are highly skilled in their speciality. We work autonomously, and we utilise a wide range of clinical skill sets in order to undertake our roles and make effective decisions. Duties can range from undertaking pre-employment medicals, health surveillance and health screening, administering vaccinations, phlebotomy, oversea travel clinics, assessing fitness for work, promoting health promotion and health education, client consultations, training and education, and complex case management. This list however is not exhaustive but gives a snapshot of the general duties of an Occupational Health Nurse / Advisor
As Occupational Health Nurse Specialists, we continually utilise our clinical skills to review and analyse results in order to make evidence-based decisions, and we also have to exercise sound clinical judgement skills to be able to identify when to refer onto another Specialist, such as an Occupational Health Doctor. In addition, Occupational Health Nurses undertake other clinical screenings for fitness tests, they provide psychological screenings for higher risk roles, they run busy vaccination and phlebotomy clinics, and they hold daily client consultation clinics that present with challenges relating to varying aspects regarding both physical and psychological health.
The Future
Occupational Health is evolving and is becoming more and more multi-disciplinary, however, nationally, there is a shortage of qualified and skilled Occupational Health practitioners, to include both Nurses and Doctors; because of this shortage, this has placed Occupational Health high on the government’s agenda. Occupational Health has been recognised and cited in papers such as “our healthier nation” and “improving lives”, and the Department of Health and Social Care’s Lord Bethell is previously noted as saying “Occupational health services are vitally important in keeping people healthy and safe in the workplace”.
Although some strategies and progression for National Occupational Health provision have been somewhat delayed due to the COVID pandemic, what has emerged from the Pandemic is the fact that as Occupational Health Nurses, one key skill that we do have is determination, and ensuring that where possible, we can continue to do things, albeit if in a different way. At the end of the day, it is our working populations who are the main foundation blocks of our socioeconomic structure, and I am confident that Florence would be proud to see how Occupational Health Nursing is evolving.
Despite there being some understandable uncertainty regarding our UK economy and its recovery from the current crisis, I believe that there are exciting times ahead for the future of Occupational Health; with us, the people being our nation’s biggest commodity, we have to look after ourselves, and each other.
