IOM work contributes to Department of Health "Invisible Patients" Report
The Department of Health has today released the report "Invisible Patients", which is the report of the working group on the Health of Health Professionals chaired by Professor Alastair Scotland, Director of the National Clinical Assessment Service.
The report aims to develop a framework that enables all healthcare organisations to build healthy workplaces and a healthy workforce, from the start of the health practitioner’s professional education and throughout their career. When collating information for this report, evidence was gathered from a number of sources and reviews, including both the Black (www.workingforhealth.gov.uk) and Boorman reviews (www.nhshealthandwellbeing.org/pdfs).
In developing the framework, the Department of Health also commissioned two reviews of research evidence and a survey of patients and health practitioners. A team of scientists from IOM, led by Dr Joanne Crawford, carried out the review that examined physical health in health practitioners. We identified that much of the evidence was limited in scope and quality, and the studies focussed almost exclusively on physicians and nurses. The main physical health conditions identified as possible problems for healthcare workers were musculoskeletal conditions and skin diseases; levels of absenteeism and presenteeism were found to be high and the organisation and structure of the work was found to have more of an impact on the health of practitioners than the work itself.
The report and background evidence reviews are available from the Department of Health website: