Reference material

Rbeck911, BSN, RN · Aug 12, 2014

Hi there.

Occupational Health is very much a learn as you go field. You will likely not have had any work experience like it. It is very autonomous for a nurse and you often rely on your own keen judgement and critical thinking.

As far as reading material goes, the best thing you can do is to familiarize yourself with OSHA Standard 1904. It deals directly with record keeping for injuries. You will most likely have something to do with maintaining your companies OSHA log. This is vital information regarding what injuries and treatments OSHA considers to be recordable. https://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owasrch.search_form?p_doc_type=STANDARDS&p_toc_level=1&p_keyvalue=1904

While it is important to know the OSHA side of things, get it in your head now that recordable and compensable are two different things. While the two often go hand in hand, there will come times when you as a risk assessor and case manager will deny a claim due to fraud, non work related disease process, an injury not occuring during the course of ones job duties, etc. The primary function of your job, and the reason the company is paying your that above average nurses salary is to control cost. My Occ Health mentor told me always aim for a win for the associate and a win for the company. Of course, as a nurse, your primary goal is always treatment, but it is your job to take the path of least resistance.

For example, an after hours injury may be sent to the ER. The ER doc refers to ortho. Ortho refers to surgery, surgery wants to operate. You decide to get a second opinion with a different ortho, who believes that therapy will make as much medical improvement as surgery. You take the least expensive path while still providing the care that the worker needs. Hence, the win-win.

Unfortunately, this side of things is very much learned on the job as you develop the vital skills needed for this industry.

You will also be the first line treatment for medical and traumatic emergencies that occur in your workplace. It would be beneficial to make sure you have AHA BLS and not just the Lay Person CPR. I would also advise seeking out a PHTLS (pre hospital trauma life support) class. This can be very beneficial in retaining triage and traumatic assessment skills. Just now as I was typing this I had to leave to go out to the plant to respond to an injured associate. Depending on the nature of business and the number of associates this could be a very common practice in Occ Health.

The certifications you should focus on primarily upon entering this field is COHC hearing conservation, NIOSH approved spirometry training, and either the OSHA 30 hour course or at least an OSHA record keeping course.

Stay compliant in your work. Stay within your practice. Stay within the legal perimeters of workers compensation. If you do everything with these three things in mind, and a good background and flexible personality, you will do well in Occ Health.

Good luck and enjoy your new venture. It is a rewarding one.