Workplace Hazards Faced by Nursing Assistants in the United States: A Focused Literature Review.
Journal Article (Review;Journal Article)
Nursing assistants (NAs) make up a large share of the healthcare provider workforce and their numbers are expected to grow. NAs are predominantly women who earn a low wage and report financial, work, and family demands. Working as a NA is hazardous; this manuscript specifically examines the biological/infectious, chemical, enviromechanical, physical and psychosocial hazards that appear in the literature to date. A focused search strategy was used to review literature about hazards that fell into each of the five aforementioned domains. While some hazards that were documented were clear, such as exposure to influenza because of close contact with patients (biological/infectious), or exposure to hazardous drugs (chemical), literature was limited. The majority of the literature we reviewed fell into the domain of psychosocial hazards and centered on stress from workplace organization issues (such as mandatory overtime, lack of managerial support, and feeling rushed). More research is needed to understand which hazards NAs identify as most concerning and tailored interventions are needed for risk mitigation.
Full Text
Duke Authors
Cited Authors
- Walton, AL; Rogers, B
Published Date
- May 19, 2017
Published In
Volume / Issue
- 14 / 5
Start / End Page
- E544 -
PubMed ID
- 28534859
Pubmed Central ID
- PMC5451994
Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)
- 1660-4601
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
- 1661-7827
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
- 10.3390/ijerph14050544
Language
- eng