Things you need to know about Occupational Health- from a clinician...

A Q&A with Angela Evans- UKIM Occupational Health & Wellbeing's Head of Operations and OH Nurse.

1) What is Occupational Health? 

Occupational health covers a broad range of activities, but it is essentially looking at the relationship between work and health. This includes:

• ensuring that the employee’s health is not affected by their work. Health surveillance is very important as it can provide early detection of work-related diseases such as occupational asthma and noise-induced hearing loss.
• Support with attendance management – this can be either for individuals whose illness/injury is related to their work, or for employees who have health issues that affect their ability to undertake their role and require support from their employer.

2) Who are Occupational Health professionals?

Occupational health practitioners are confidential and impartial healthcare professionals from different specialities.

• Occupational health physicians are qualified medical doctors. Some have an interest in Occupational Medicine, and this can lead to doctors pursuing formal qualifications in occupational health. OH physicians can gain qualifications that mean they can use the title of Consultant in Occupational medicine.
• Occupational health advisors and occupational health nurses are qualified and registered nurses. As with OHPs, nurses can pursue formal qualifications in occupational health nursing, which can enable them to be qualified as Specialist Nurse Practitioners in occupational health.
• Occupational health technicians – although no formal qualifications are required for this role, they usually have relevant backgrounds, often to degree level in subjects like sports science. OH technicians are trained to perform various OH functions including health surveillance and wellbeing clinics.

3) How can OH help with attendance management?

Seeking guidance and support from OH is valuable in ensuring you support your employees through times of ill health or injury, whether work related or not. Whether with an OHP or OHA, the OH professional will take a full clinical history from the employee to ensure they have the full picture to then be able to give clear and concise advice on support that the employer can consider.

The OH professional will listen to the employee’s health issues, and consider alongside the information provided by the referring employer. They will then be able to give clear and unbiased advice.

The consultation will allow your employee to discuss their health concerns with the OH professional, and as well as advising the employer, the OH professional will also be able to advise on lifestyle/self-help measures, signpost to further support e.g. EAP, support groups, etc. Due to their medical training, the OH professional is able to understand the links between health and work, and can usually provide practical advice that the employer may not have considered.

4) What makes a good referral?

The golden rule when making a referral to OH is to ask the questions that you need answered, to help you support your employee. UKIM offer support and training for managers on getting the best out of an OH referral.

Generally, employers want to know –

• whether their employee is fit for work, and if not, timescales for when they may be able to return.
• Whether the employee requires any support or adjustments, and how long this is likely to be required for.

OH can also provide support and guidance for the ill health early retirement process – advising on whether an employee’s application may have merit, advising HR on considerations such as redeployment before ill health early retirement is considered, and then gathering the relevant evidence to support an application.

Angela Evans: UKIM Occupational Health & Wellbeing Head of Operations