Worker Health Charts: Comparing the Health and Safety of Your Nurses to the Nation
Is this facility’s problem unique?
Most health care facilities conduct regular employee surveys to identify and address problems among their workforce. However, it can be difficult to for a facility to determine if the issues identified in their employee survey are unique to their institution or similar to what is happening at other facilities nationwide.
To answer this question, it would be helpful for health care facilities to have a national data set for comparison. Recently, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) created Worker Health Charts, a tool that charts data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), and other national and state-level data sources. The data cover various topics ranging from psychosocial exposures in the workplace (e.g., high job demands and work–life imbalance) to chronic conditions (e.g., cancer and high blood pressure) found among certain jobs, industries, or demographics. Nurse managers and occupational health staff can use Worker Health Charts to include questions in employee surveys and compare their data to national statistics.