Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Toronto, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Following a review of the stress, distress and coping reported by student health professionals and students in higher education, see Chapters 2 and 3, the hypothesis that a problem existed with distress early in training was confirmed by screening two cohorts of first year student nurses, see Chapter 4. Some 50.5% of students, in Cohort one (N=109, Week 40) and 67.9% of students in Cohort two (N=111, Week 24) suffered significant levels of affective distress. All students were enrolled on the newly implemented 1992 scheme of nurse education in Tayside. The underlying dimensions of situational sources reported by student nurse stress were clarified with the development of the Student Nurse Stress Index, see Chapter 5. A reliable 22 variable solution with oblique structure and non-orthogonal factors of "academic load", "clinical sources", "intet/ace worries", "personal problems" was obtained. This measure showed cross sample factor congruence, good internal reliabilities, and concurrent and discriminant validity across a range of reporting conditions. A stress reduction/management intervention set at individual and interface levels, designed to reduce levels of student nurse distress revealed by the earlier screening study, was implemented during a second series of hospital placements, see Chapter 6. A randomised controlled trial revealed the success of this programme in reducing affective distress in 73 student nurses shown to have experienced significant levels of distress earlier in training. A series of significant treatment x time interactions were found with a range of context-free measures of affective distress, e.g. General Health Questionnaire-30 (Goldberg, 1972), State and Trait Anxiety Inventory (Speilberger, et aI., 1983), Beck Depression Inventory (Beck, et aI., 1987), with situational sources of stress (Beck & Srivastava, 1991), and Domestic Satisfaction (Derogatis, 1980). Similar treatment x time interactions were found with Direct Coping (Parkes, 1984), and Relaxation Potential (Derogatis, 1980). Adaptive changes were confmed to the experimental group alone. In addition, State Anxiety on the morning of an important exam was lower for students receiving stress management (Treatment X= 45.88, Control X =59.09). The intervention had no detectable effect on organisational variables of sickness, absence and examination performance. However, logistic regression and hierarchical multiple regression analysis showed that initial distress at screen did not predict pre or post-treatment changes in sickness or absence, or subsequent examination performance. Stress management delivered in groups reduced affective distress and increased adaptive coping use in both clinical and academic settings. Possible future directions for this research targeting student nurses are outlined in Chapter 7.

The present study applied a combined behavioural and attitudinal approach in occupational safety in a Hong Kong-based metal house in Shenzhen, China in an attempt to modify the safety behaviours and attitudes of the workers by means of posted feedback plus goal-setting. To the best of the researcher's knowledge, this is the first study of this type to be attempted in a Chinese industrial setting. A total of 142 respondents from the four departments, namely Heavy Duty, Small Press, Hand Press and Drilling were involved in the survey with a multiple-based line design for an environment where random sampling was impossible. Meanwhile, the study also intended to explore the underlying factors that affected the safety attitudes of the respondents. These factors included influences from traditional culture and religions. A self-constructed observation checklist and a questionnaire adopted from the Health and Safety Executive Report No. 81 (HSE, 1996) on attitude investigation were the major research instruments. Percentaged analysis, ANOVA, T-Test and Fisher Exact Test set at 0.05 level were applied to determine the significance of differences in the workers' behaviours and attitudes before and after the intervention. From the results of the research, it was found that i) there were relationships between the workers' behaviours in occupational safety and posted-feedback plus goal-setting in the Heavy-duty Press, Small Press and Hand Press Departments; ii) there were relationships between the intervention and the workers' attitudes in terms of -'Supervisor Satisfaction' in the Heavy Duty and the Small Press Departments; -'Shop-floor Training' with the Heavy Duty Press and the Small Press Departments; -'Safety Meeting' with the Small Press Department; -' Safety Working Procedures' with the Heavy Duty Press and the Small Press Departments; iii) the results demonstrated that there were relationships between attitudes of the formally trained workers and those of their peer workers without formal training towards occupational safety in terms of -'Supervisor Satisfaction' with the Heavy Duty Press Department; -'Safety Meeting' with the Heavy Duty Press Department; -' Safety Working Procedures' with the Small Press department; iv) there were relationships between workers with self-reported accident rates and those without in terms of their safety attitudes towards -'Supervisor Knowledge' with the Heavy Duty Press Department; -'Shop-floor Satisfaction' with the Heavy Duty Press Department; -'Shop-floor Environment: Hardware' with the Small Press Department. Intervention was related to both the workers' attitudes and their behaviours in work safety in the Heavy-duty Press, the Small Press and the Hand Press departments. Throughout the investigation, no significant change was found with both the respondents' safety behaviours or attitudes in the Drilling Department during the periods when interventions were introduced to other departments. Concerning the controlling factors for the workers' attitudes towards work safety, cultural and religious factors could explain the workers' under-reporting of accidents and injuries. These findings implied that researchers needed to be aware of the tremendous local cultural and religious concerns when applying western rationales to constructing a safety culture in developing countries.

Thesis (doctoral)--Stockholms universitet, 2000. / Abstract laid in. Includes bibliographical references (p. 167-174).

Thesis (doctoral)--Stockholms universitet, 2000. / Abstract laid in. Includes bibliographical references (p. 167-174).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin, 1964. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Bibliography: leaves 143-145.

Occupational skin diseases is one of the most commonest occupational disease groups accounting for about a fifth of all occupational diseases in the UK. Current guidance from the HSE for skin health surveillance is the skin inspection by a responsible person in the workplace. The use of teledermatology can be attractive to reliably conduct skin surveillance in the workplace, and a tool box to take reproducible standardised photographs from the hands of workers in the workplace was developed. Aim of this thesis was to assess diagnostic accuracy and validity of this toolkit with visual inspection as criterion standard for the presence of minor or major hand dermatitis and by scoring the hands and photographs with the validated Hand Eczema Severity Index. Workers from four different occupations were recruited over a 7 month period and 332 workers were assessed on a repeatedly basis producing 1212 assessments. Skin hydration and transepidermal water loss was measured and a symptoms questionnaire was completed by every participant. A high prevalence of skin problems was found in our study: 70% of the participants presented at least once over the study period with minor or major skin symptoms. A high intrarater reliability compared to the visual assessment was shown for the teledermatologic assessment with an agreement of 88%, kappa of 0.79, and a positive likelihood ratio of 7.4 and negative likelihood ratio of 0.07; about 5% of participants with normal skin were over-diagnosed compared to the visual inspection. The interrater reliability was low. The biophysical parameter did not distinguish between normal and affected skin. The tool kit has shown to produce reliable and standardised high quality photographs, the assessment of the photographs showed a very good intrarater agreement to the criterion standard. The toolkit would allow regular skin surveillance with minimal interruption in the workplace and with reliable results from the assessment.

INTRODUCTION Sick leave absenteeism is a recognized problem in all work sectors. The financial impact of sick leave has been well-documented. A profile of sick leave records can establish the extent of the sick leave problem in a workplace, the associated and predisposing factors for sick leave and the patterns of sick leave amongst workers. A baseline profile of the sick leave patterns in a workplace should be a preliminary step toward developing a programme aimed at the improvement of workers' health and attendance at work. AIM OF THE STUDY The aim of this study was to profile recorded sick leave for 2004 amongst permanent workers at the Consul Factory in Olifantsfontein, Midrand, Johannesburg in order to make recommendations to management. METHODS This was a cross-sectional study using a retrospective review of sick leave records of permanent workers at the Consul Glass factory for 2004. Information gathered included the demographic profile of workers who recorded sick leave, the frequency of sick leave, associated factors for sick leave, health care choices of workers with sick leave and the reasons for sick leave. Descriptive and analytic statistics have been presented. RESULTS • Workers over the age of fifty years had sick leave of longer duration compared to those younger than 50 years old (p<0.05). The median hours taken off for sick leave was higher in the male subgroup compared to the female subgroup of workers in the study population (p<0.05); • Workers from the production areas had more sick leave episodes for the year than workers from the non-production areas (p<0.05). Workers with bronchitis working in the production areas of the factory, had longer duration of sick leave compared to workers with bronchitis working in the nonproduction areas of the factory (p<0.05); • Workers on a variable shift schedule took more sick leave on days of the week that were unlinked to weekends and public holidays (p<0.05).A longer duration of sick leave occurred with certified sick leave compared with self reported sick leave (p<0.05); • In the study population, the majority were not medical aid members. Medical aid members had a longer duration of sick leave per episode compared to non-medical aid members (P<0.05); • Respiratory tract infection was the most common reason for sick leave. Of the ten most common reasons for sick leave, there was a significant difference in the mean number of hours of sick leave taken per episode for dental treatment and backache (p<0.05); • There was a significant difference in the mean number of hours of sick leave recommended by the four different sources of sick notes (p<0.05); • There was a significant association for worker interviews/counselling by the Human Resources' Department official and the worker having had four or more episodes of sick leave for the year (p<0.05). CONCLUSION The profile of sick leave at this company identified important associations with sick leave patterns. These significant findings provide management with baseline information, which can be used for the development of workplace interventions to address the taking of sick leave at the Consul Glass factory. / Thesis (M.Med.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2008.

Thesis (M.A.)--Georgia State University, 2005. / Title from title screen. James Darsey, committee chair; David Cheshier, Mary Stuckey, committee members. Electronic text (237 p.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed July 12, 2007. Includes bibliographical references.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.Med.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1981.