Workplace health & safety
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Workplace health & safety · Jun 2012
Posttraumatic stress disorder among paramedics: exploring a new solution with occupational health nurses using the Ottawa Charter as a framework.
Paramedics have the highest rate of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among emergency service workers, higher than police or firefighters. This disorder can be detrimental to their personal and family lives, as well as their careers. ⋯ This goal can be accomplished by using a component of the Ottawa Charter, creating a supportive work environment, as a framework. Occupational health nurses, together with management and paramedics, can facilitate a sustainable and supportive work environment that initiates change from within the trauma membrane of paramedics' workplaces to prevent PTSD.
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Workplace health & safety · May 2012
Pesticide exposure and child neurodevelopment: summary and implications.
Widely used around the world, pesticides play an important role in protecting health, crops, and property. However, pesticides may also have detrimental effects on human health, with young children among the particularly vulnerable. ⋯ Evidence shows a link between pesticides and neonatal reflexes, psychomotor and mental development, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Implications include a need for improved risk assessment and health histories by clinicians, greater education at all levels, more common use of integrated pest management, and continued policy and regulatory strategies to mitigate the effects of and the need for pesticides.