Shift work is a major feature of modern work practices. It involves individuals working at times considered unconventional for most workers, such as at night. Although the community often benefits from such work practices, shift work can be hazardous, for both the workers and the community. The thesis reviews the main problems of shift work, especially when involving night work. These are: an increased risk for accidents and errors; increased sleepiness and fatigue due to difficulties sleeping; increased health problems; and disruption to family and social life. Strategies to limit the risk associated with these hazards are also reviewed, and include using knowledge of circadian principles to plan shift schedules, sleeping schedules and meal times; planned napping; consideration of the work environment; and newer techniques such as using bright lights and melatonin. While this information is known to the research community, it has not filtered down to many shift work workplaces and thus has had little if any positive effect on actual shift work practices. For a change in shift work practices to occur, the research knowledge must become available to every shift work workplace, as must some incentive or motivation to ensure that workplaces make the necessary changes. The Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) laws provide such a framework. Considering shift work as an OHS hazard would ensure that all shift work workplaces identified the hazards of shift work, conducted a risk assessment to identify the risk associated with the hazards, and then implemented the appropriate strategies, from the hierarchy of shift work hazard control measures, for both employers and employees, to fulfil their duty of care to minimise the risks. Considering shift work as an OHS issue would ensure that the research information was used as intended – to improve the safety, performance, and quality of life of all shift workers. The present thesis reviews the shift work research and introduces an OHS perspective as a method to manage shift work effectively.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University OF MICHIGAN.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University OF MICHIGAN.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Teachers College, Columbia University. / Typescript; issued also on microfilm. Sponsor: John P. Allegrante. Dissertation Committee: David E. Wilder. Bibliography: leaves 139-146.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University OF MICHIGAN.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University OF MICHIGAN.

Published also as E.R. Hayhurst's thesis (Ph.D.) University of Chicago, 1916, with title: Industrial health-hazards and occupational diseases in Ohio. / Prepared in conformity with House joint resolution no. 12 - Eightieth General Assembly of Ohio, under the general supervision and direction of the Ohio State Board of Health ... February, 1915.

Thesis (M.S.) in Kinesiology and Phyiscal Education--University of Maine, 2003. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 56-58 ).

This study was carried out using a Foucauldian discourse analysis and involved the examination of three statutory reports into the provision of occupational health in the workplace. The reports analysed were the Report of the Select Committee on the Bill for the Regulation of Factories (1832); the Safety and Health at Work Report (1972); and Working for a Healthier Tomorrow (2008). Additionally, analysis was carried out on oral events with nursing students, which sought to understand their perceptions of referral to occupational health. The objective of this study is to explore how referral is constructed through discourse, categorising how this practice is constrained or liberated by specific discourses and how nursing students are positioned by these discourses. My study highlights both structural and subjective barriers to the use of occupational health. At the structural level, it is observed that referral to occupational health commenced as a form of governmentality, introducing dividing practices which subjected the workforce to forms of classification and surveillance. For those classified as healthy a culture developed within workplaces in which health behaviours needed to comply with the standards set down by occupational health and by the risk management approach. Risk management processes and stigmatisation are used to ensure compliance with the state’s wishes for a healthy and productive workforce. This trend is seen across the reports analysed, and is increased within the Black Report to the surveillance of health both in and out of the workplace for those of a working age. Subjectively, occupational health was identified as a disciplining and subjugating structure by the nursing students. The students evidenced notions of Cartesian duality in their discussions of the outcomes of referral, as they readily accepted surveillance of the body whilst seeking to avoid surveillance of their mental health capabilities. Through observation of architectural signs and organisational images of discourse, students categorised occupational health as an instrument of the higher education institute and not as a form of holistic health support. The research highlights how occupational health acts as a barrier to the students’ fulfilling their societal roles as good students and good nurses. The research also highlights a desire on the part of the student nurses to utilise occupational health within a public health framework which addresses their health in a preventative rather than punitive manner.

Statement of problem: Dynamic work environments and physically demanding jobs in the healthcare and commercial construction industries present workers with a constantly changing suite of hazards, and hence the changing need for controls. Workers in these industries experience high rates of MSDs and other illnesses and injuries. Hazard recognition and control are essential and inspections are essential elements used to identify and anticipate hazards and to implement corrective action as part of a systems-level approach to tackle the dynamic worksite. Methods: Because there is a dearth of practical resources for evaluating ergonomic risk factors in healthcare environments the first step in this dissertation was to explore the development of a tool and process for identifying modifiable aspects of acute care hospital patient care units to prevent work-related MSDs. To address a lack of systems-level approaches to worksite-based interventions in construction, an ergonomics program that relies heavily on inspections was developed and evaluated on five pairs of commercial construction sites. To examine associations between physical working conditions and safety climate, the relationship between weekly safety inspections and weekly safety climate scores was examined on six commercial construction sites. Results: The inspection process provided a structured method for recognizing hazards in dynamic and physically demanding work environments and reporting both observations and recommendations to decision makers. There were no significant intervention effects, however key challenges to intervention implementation were competing safety and production priorities and break practices leading to inconsistencies delivering the intervention and key resources to workers. Variations in week-to-week safety inspections were highly correlated with variations in week-to-week safety climate. Conclusions: Inspection tools and processes were useful in a systems-approach to workplace interventions in the dynamic industries of healthcare and commercial construction. Worksite-based ergonomics interventions focusing efforts on hazard identification, recommendations for solutions, and reinforcing both positive and negative feedback to safety management and workers can have a major impact on worker wellbeing. In addition, physical working conditions (as identified through weekly safety inspections) are an important aspect of the week to week changes of safety climate in the dynamic commercial construction environment.