Health-care sector
IWH research that specifically involves health-care workplaces, workers, unions, employers and/or associations, as well as research on programs that specifically target the health-care sector, is collected together here. Not included here is IWH research that cuts across all or many sectors, even though it may be relevant to the health-care sector. For this reason, visitors are encouraged to explore beyond this page to find equally important information on the prevention of work injury and disability in health care.
Featured
Research Highlights
Primary care physicians’ learning needs in returning ill or injured workers to work
While primary care physicians play an important role in helping ill and injured workers return to work (RTW), they have a variety of learning needs about how to best navigate the RTW process. These needs fall in the areas of completing administrative tasks, challenging personal beliefs, understandin
Published: July 26, 2023
IWH Speaker Series
More than just COVID-19 prevention: Exploring the links between PPE, safe work protocols and workers' mental health
Published: November 10, 2020
Research Highlights
Getting the message right: strategies to improve return-to-work communication
Communication is central to disability management—especially in large and complex organizations where multiple parties are involved in the return-to-work process and inconsistent practices can add to communication challenges. Workplace stakeholders in large and complex organizations use key strategies to effectively communicate about RTW. They include communicating messages of support, correctly timing RTW communication, carefully wording messages, framing messages and tailoring messages for individual workers.
Published: July 2022
Research Highlights
Working conditions for Greater Toronto Area personal support workers during the COVID-19 pandemic
Personal support workers (PSWs) faced a range of challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic, including concerns of contracting or transmitting the virus, reduced work hours and income, loss of childcare services and lack of paid sick leave. While the pandemic highlighted the importance of the PSW workforce to the Canadian health-care system, pre-existing poor working conditions—in particular, insecure jobs with few benefits—exacerbated COVID-19-related work experiences.
Published: July 2022
Journal article
Journal article
Implementing the Total Worker Health program in a shared governance context
Published: Journal of Emergency Nursing, July 2022
Journal article
Journal article
From hands-on to remote: moderators of response to a novel self-management telehealth programme during the COVID-19 pandemic
Published: European Journal of Pain, May 2022
Journal article
Journal article
The working conditions for personal support workers in the Greater Toronto Area during the COVID-19 pandemic: a mixed-methods study
Published: Canadian Journal of Public Health, May 2022
Journal article
Journal article
Trends and disparities in the use of telehealth among injured workers during the COVID-19 pandemic
Published: Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine, April 2022
Journal article
Journal article
A grounded theory study to identify caregiving phases and support needs across the Alzheimer's disease trajectory
Published: Disability and Rehabilitation, April 2022
Research Highlights
Implementing participatory ergonomics in the long-term care sector
It can be challenging to tackle long-standing musculoskeletal hazards in busy, high turnover settings such as long-term care homes. Despite this, an IWH study finds a participatory approach—one that involves frontline workers—can be successfully implemented and sustained.
Published: February 2022
Research Highlights
Workers’ and managers’ perspectives on workplace supports for depression
In a survey of workers with depression and those who manage them, nearly one out of four said no supports were available. Asked about the most helpful type of support, survey respondents with lived experience of depression most often indicated employee assistance programs (EAPs) and other supports external to the workplace. As for barriers to implementing practices, participants noted unsupportive managers, lack of knowledge about mental health in the workplace, and lack of training for managers.
Published: January 2022
Journal article
Journal article
Palliative care for people who use substances during communicable disease epidemics and pandemics: a scoping review protocol
Published: BMJ Open, October 2021