• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.275-284
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• 2013

Purpose: This study analyzed the characteristics of occupational injuries and illnesses of the nursing staff to reveal the prevalence of the major diseases and the predominant causes of the injuries in the nursing environment. Methods: Total 3,455 work-related compensation cases of nursing staff from January 1 2000 to December 31 2012, were selected. The specific types of the diseases, injuries, causes and the time of the incidence were analyzed. Results: Majority of the compensated cases were young women under 30 years old. The composition of the occupational injuries and illness was 74.5% and 25.5%, respectively. Occupational infection was the major part of the occupational illnesses (47.3%), and 74% of them were tuberculosis. Musculoskeletal disorder (12.6%) was followed the infectious disease, and 36.4% of them occurred while moving the patients. Slipping was the most frequent injury; most of them resulted in the lower extremities injury. Most of the injuries increased during shift change, except workplace violence, which increased later than 19:00. Conclusion: Occupational injuries and illnesses of nursing staff need the specific prevention strategy, and the prevention strategy should be suitable for the nursing workplace.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.148-157
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• 2011

Objectives: Although compensation for occupational injuries and diseases is guaranteed in almost all nations, countries vary greatly with respect to how they organize workers' compensation systems. In this paper, we focus on three aspects of workers' compensation insurance in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries - types of systems, employers' funding mechanisms, and coverage for injured workers - and their impacts on the actual frequencies of occupational injuries and diseases. Methods: We estimated a panel data fixed effect model with cross-country OECD and International Labor Organization data. We controlled for country fixed effects, relevant aggregate variables, and dummy variables representing the occupational accidents data source. Results: First, the use of a private insurance system is found to lower the occupational accidents. Second, the use of risk-based pricing for the payment of employer raises the occupational injuries and diseases. Finally, the wider the coverage of injured workers is, the less frequent the workplace accidents are. Conclusion: Private insurance system, fixed flat rate employers' funding mechanism, and higher coverage of compensation scheme are significantly and positively correlated with lower level of occupational accidents compared with the public insurance system, risk-based funding system, and lower coverage of compensation scheme.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Toxicology Conference
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• 2003.10b
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• pp.68-83
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• 2003

Welders working in a confined space, like in the shipbuilding industry, are at risk of being exposed to high concentrations of welding fumes and developing pneumoconiosis or other welding-fume exposure related diseases. Among such diseases, manganism resulting from welding-fume exposure remains a controversial issue, as the movement of manganese into specific brain regions has not been clearly established.(omitted)

• Proceedings of the PSK Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.72-72
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• 2003

Welders working in a the confined space, like in the shipbuilding industry, are have at risk of being exposed toing a high concentrations of welding fumes and of developing pneumoconiosis or other welding- fume exposure related diseases. Among such diseasesthem, manganism resulting fromcaused by welding- fume exposure remains ais still controversial issue, as the movement ofnd no clear demonstration of manganese movement into the specific brain regions has not been clearly established. (omitted)

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.245-247
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• 2019

Occupational risks are often underestimated in midwifery. It is not commonly known that occupational risks were originally described by the Italian physician Bernardino Ramazzini (1633-1714) at the beginning of the 18th century. Our aim was to describe occupational risks in midwifery from Ramazzini to modern times. The original text by Bernardino Ramazzini was analyzed. A review of modern scientific articles on occupational risks in midwifery was conducted. Ramazzini identified two major occupational risks in midwifery: infections and awkward postures. Modern literature seems to agree with his considerations, focusing on infection, use of universal protection and personal protective equipment, and musculoskeletal problems. Modern studies also evidenced posttraumatic stress disorder that was probably postulated by Ramazzini himself. The poor number of articles in literature on midwives' occupational risks shows a lack of interest toward this issue. Prevention should therefore be emphasized in this field, so high-quality studies on occupational risks in midwifery are needed.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.64-72
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• 2021

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze occupational accident compensation insurance coverage and occupational accidents incidence for special-type delivery workers. Methods: The data for occupational accident compensation insurance coverage and occupational accidents from 2012 to 2017 were analyzed through descriptive statistics. Results: Rates of occupational accident compensation insurance coverage of special-type delivery workers decreased gradually from 43.4% in 2012 to 28.5% in 2016, and 29.0% in 2017. Rates of occupational illnesses death per ten thousand workers increased gradually from 2.1‱ in 2013 to 3.1‱ in 2016, and 8.6‱ in 2017. All occupational illness deaths were due to cerebro-cardiovascular diseases. Road traffic accidents and slips accounted for the largest proportion of occupational accidents. Conclusion: Special-type delivery workers have a high risk of industrial accidents, so it is necessary to raise industrial accident insurance coverage and provide professional and systematic occupational safety and health services.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.32-39
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• 2022

This study analyzed the relationship between occupational accidents in the construction industry and business cycle factors. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to achieve the research purpose; additionally, time-varying parameter estimations were performed to interpret the results. The results obtained for the construction industry revealed a statistically significant relationship between occupational accidents and wage increase rate, unemployment, construction starts, and other factors. The wage increase rate plays a role in reducing occupational accidents because efforts are made to prevent accidents owing to the increase in income loss due to accidents and the demand for increased safety levels. The number of construction starts affects occupational accidents with a time lag of 1 to 2 or 4 months; therefore, it is likely to be used as a leading indicator for estimating fatal accidents in the construction industry. This study highlighted the importance of monitoring socioeconomic changes that could affect the working conditions of workers and workplaces, and production activities in the workplace for the effective prevention of occupational accidents. This study also reveals the necessity of developing a method to operate prevention projects flexibly and the seasonality of industrial characteristics, particularly those of the construction industry where the highest number of fatal occupational injuries occur.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.1-2
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• 2022

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.144-155
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• 1997

In December 1990, Occupational Safety and Health Law was amended to reinforce employer's responsibilities on employees' health and safety. Among the amended law it was important to expand the role of an occupational health nurse to the role of an occupational health manager. An occupational health manager should take charge of coordinating periodic health examination and environmental hazard evaluation, providing primary care, monitoring employees' health status, giving the workplace walk-through, selecting safe protection equipment, providing health information, counseling and health education, independently. This position of occupational health nurse is equivalent to the role of doctors or occupational hygienists. In 1991, government made a master plan to prevent occupational disease and injury. Under the plan, Korea Industrial Nursing Association (KINA) was established in 1994 with the purpose of improving health services and upgrading career opportunities for members. Therefore, this study was designed to analyze the transition of occupational health nursing education with the changes of law and policy in Korea between 1991 and 1996. In details, it was to analyze the rate of school providing occupational health nursing practice based lecture, lecture hours, lecture contents in undergraduate curriculum, program contents of graduate school, kinds of continuing education, etc. For this purpose, we conducted survey two times. In February 1991, baseline study was conducted with all nursing programs in Korea (19 BSN programs and 43 nursing departments of junior college). From April to May in 1996, the second survey was conducted with all nursing programs (38 BSN programs and 69 junior colleges). The first response rate was 66.1% and the second was 40.6%. Structured questionnaires were mailed to the deans or the community health nursing faculties. In the case of graduate school, telephone survey was conducted with 10 school of public health or environmental health area. Data from the yearbook of Industrial Safety Training Institute (ISTI), the history of Korea Industrial Health Association, and the journals of KINA were also included in the analysis. As the results, we found that there were remarkable improvement in undergraduate and graduate programs, obligatory as well as voluntary continuing education in terms of occupational health nursing expertise between 1991 and 1996. 1) The number of school providing occupational health nursing practice-based lecture was increased with the rate from 7.3% to 25.6%. The rate of school giving over 15 class-hours was increased from 33.3% to 46.6%. 2) Content areas were composed of introduction of occupational health, occupational epidemiology, industrial hygiene, occupational disease and injury, law and policy, health education, concept of occupational health nursing, role of occupational health nurse, occupational health nursing process, etc. Of content areas, occupational health nursing process was more emphasized with the increased rate from 43.9% to 88.4%. 3) In the case of graduate school, occupational health programs were increased from 4 to 10. One of them has developed occupational health nursing program as an independent course since 1991. 4) The law increased educational hours from 28 hours to 36 hours for introductory course at the time of appointment, and from 14 hours to 24 hours every 2 years for continuing education. Course contents were Occupational safety and health law, introduction of occupational health, health education methodology, planning and evaluation, periodic health exam, occupational disease care, primary care, emergency care, management, industrial environment evaluation, etc. In 1996, Korea Industrial Nursing Association has begun to provide continuing education after Industrial Safety Training Institute. 5) Various educational programs in voluntary base were developed such as monthly seminar, CE articles, annual academic symposium, etc. It was shown that changes of law and policy led rapid growth of occupational health nursing education in various levels. From this trend, it is expected that occupational health nurse expertise be continuously to be enhanced in Korea. Legal and political supports should proceed for the development of occupational health nursing in early stage.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.97-114
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• 1998

The occupational health services for the minor enterprises are poor comparing with that of large enterprises in Korea. In 1997, Korean government announced officially the law on joint employment system of occupational health practitioners to solve the problems. This study is to develop the model on the joint employment system of occupational nurse practitioners for minor enterprises in Korea based on the opinions of occupational health nurses (OH Ns). The data were collected by questionnares from October to November in 1997. The number of subjects was 210 occupational health nurses who had participated the mandatory nursing education program provided by the Korean Occupational Health Nurses Association(KOHNA). The response rate was 47.1%. The contents of questionnaires were general characteristics, occupational & job characteristics of OHNs, and the views on the joint employment system. The SAS-PC program was used for the statistical analysis. The results were as followed, (1) The proper number of industies was 3 and the appropriate number of workers was 448 for one joint employed occupational nurse practitioner (J EONP). (2) 44.7% of the OHNs wanted that the Ministry of Labor monitored the way and content of contraction b/w JEONP and minor emterprises, 82.6% of the OHNs wanted that KOHNA managed the employment informations. (3) The OHNs of occupational health agencies showed more positive attitude than the OHNs of private industries on the joint employment system. (4) 88.3% of the OHNs wanted the education training for JEONP. Especially in occupational hygiene and safety control. (5) The OHNs expected the role expansion of Occupational Health Nursing by JEONP system. At the same time they worried the adverse effects. For the successful execution of this system, it is necessary the cooperation among the Ministry of Labor, KOHNA, the minor enterprises, and the OHNs.