A Culture of Care: webinars for the health care and social assistance industry

The first of a series of webinars for people in the health care and social assistance industry has been published by Workplace Health and Safety Queensland as part of the Culture of Care Initiative. This initiative recognises that caring for the health and safety of workers in this industry is just as crucial as caring for patients.

The webinar features prominent occupational physician Dr Keith Adam, who provides an overview of the key work health and safety issues faced the industry and what can be done to better manage the risks. Importantly, Dr Adam discusses how good work design can help transform the way work health and safety is managed. He explains how workplaces can immediately and continually improve work design with incremental changes, rather than waiting for a fundamental redesign. He also explores the application of good work design to enhance psychological health.

Dr Adam’s presentation is complemented by an overview of good work design principles presented by Workplace Health and Safety Queensland ergonomist Suzanne Johnson, as well as a case study presented by Brooke Dench from the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society of Australia. Ms Dench describes how she applied good work design to improve safety and efficiency in a hospital setting.

The next webinar in the series will focus on the priority issue of people handling and the importance of using a holistic and systematic approach to manage musculoskeletal disorder risks. Further webinars will be published in early 2021, continuing the good work design theme and focus on other key work health and safety risks in the industry, including fatigue, working in isolation and occupational violence.

Check out the good work design webinar with Dr Keith Adam and Brooke Dench.