As the Official Campaign Partner of ‘Healthy Workplaces Lighten the Load campaign 2020-22’, the EFN continues to work very closely to OSHA, the European Information Agency for Occupational Safety and Health, to create a safe workplace to improve trust and safety for all the EU healthcare professionals.
According to a report analysis conducted and presented by OSHA, the Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) are closely related to workforce diversity, which refers to the individual characteristics of employees including gender, race, ethnicity, religion, age, sexual orientation, physical abilities and ideologies, etc. Certain characteristics of the workforce allowed identifying, in particular, three specific groups of workers that frequently report poor working conditions and a higher exposure to health-related issues, including Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs): women, migrants and LGBTI workers. This in-depth analysis highlighted how these groups suffered by MSDs more than others due to the typical characteristics of their profession.
In light of this, it emerged that the health profession, in which women represent a large part, has a high rate of MSDs related risks. Every day, 3 million nurses in Europe are subject to physical strain from lifting or moving people, repetitive movements, which cause musculoskeletal disorders and other physical risks.
Against this backdrop and in the occasion of the European Week for Safety and Health at work, the EFN launched – ongoing in these days, its social media awareness campaign on the issue of Musculoskeletal Disorders, which aims to shed the light on this delicate topic.
Remember that nurses are the backbone of the healthcare system. Protect them by creating safe workplaces, means create a better environment for patients as well: safer health care professional, means better health care.