Bid to raise the profile of occupational health nursing

To mark Occupational Health Awareness Week, which aims to educate on what OH is and how it maintains the health and wellbeing of the UK workforce, nurses working across OH have told Nursing Times about the importance of getting the next generation into the specialty.

OH nurses provide risk-based advice to help people in workplaces to live well, perform well, heal if injured or ill and continue into retirement in the best health possible.

An average day as an OH nurse varies depending on the sector they are working in, as each organisation will have employees with different health needs, risks to health and environments where they work.

Janet O’Neill, deputy head of the National School of Occupational Health (NSOH), told Nursing Times that OH was entering a “new and emerging space when it comes to nursing”.

She said one of the most interesting things about being an OH nurse was the fact that it was “so autonomous”.

“There’s so many different aspects to it that you’re having to think about,” said Ms O’Neill.

“It’s not an easy thing to come into but it’s incredibly interesting.”

Ms O’Neill, who has a background in occupational health nursing, said it was the perfect career choice for nurses who “don’t want to work in a hospital environment anymore and they want to do something different”.

Now is the time to enter the specialty, as the routes into OH nursing are continuing to expand, she argued.

One of the most common routes into OH nursing is the specialist community public health nurse (SCPHN) qualification in OH.

Janet O’Neill

Ms O’Neill added that there were other routes into OH nursing that had been developed, or were developing, including foundation courses in occupational health practice, postgraduate diplomas and apprenticeships.

However, one of the biggest barriers facing the OH nursing workforce, and which has prevented widespread OH provision, is the lack of workforce coming into the specialty.

Ms O’Neill said: “We certainly don’t have the capacity in the nursing workforce.

“But it’s such an exciting field, and we are desperately trying to encourage people to come into it.”

OH was brought to the forefront of conversation among ministers earlier this year when chancellor Jeremy Hunt outlined a series of measures in the spring budget focused on improving access to OH services.

It came as a Department of Health and Social Care review of 12 national OH systems found that only half of UK employees have access to OH services, compared to countries like France, Germany and Finland which have OH health coverage of around 90%.

The budget document explained that the government wanted to introduce policies “that encourage employers to support people back into work, to work more and to prevent them falling out of work”.

Ms O’Neill argued that one of the reasons that OH nursing had come to the fore was because the government had acknowledged that it was “one of the key stakeholders in reducing sickness absence”.

She noted that OH nurses could reduce the number of people falling out of the workforce, which in turn increases labour productivity and supports the current government priority of growing the economy.

Among the announcements made in the budget was the launch of a consultation on ways that the government can boost OH coverage, including looking at regulation to require employers to provide OH services.

The consultation, which closes at 11:59pm on 12 October 2023, is also looking at the supply of OH professionals in the UK and how to develop a long-term, sustainable and multidisciplinary workforce.

Meanwhile, the recently published NHS Long Term Workforce Plan said the OH consultation would be used to inform ongoing OH workforce planning.

To try and boost current OH workforce numbers, the government recently launched a workforce expansion scheme delivered by the NSOH.

The scheme was aimed at registered nurses and doctors who were not currently working in OH but wanted to get into the specialty, and funded training places for successful applicants for 2023-24.

Ms O’Neill said that the uptake for the scheme far exceeded expectation, with 122 applicants achieving funding for approved courses, “demonstrating a real appetite for occupational education”.

“We are really pleased for those who have been successful and grateful for the co-operation from the course providers,” she added.

Anne Harriss

Separately, the former president of the Society of Occupational Medicine, Professor Anne Harriss, told Nursing Times that it was “incredible” to hear OH mentioned by the chancellor in the budget.

She said: “It looks really good that they are recognising the importance of work and health.

“I’d like to see exactly what will come out of it. It should be a priority.”

Professor Harriss also argued that general nurses “do not understand what occupational health nurses do” and urged any who were intrigued by the specialty to look at what it had to offer.

“It’s a brilliant career [because] you can work in all sorts of places,” she said.

“It is autonomous practice – we are specialists [and] there’s all sort of opportunities.”

Sara Cole, a regional occupational health advisor for more than 18,000 Royal Air Force (RAF) personnel, told Nursing Times that the path into OH nursing was “natural progression” from her previous role.

Ms Cole worked as a critical care nurse for nearly 14 years before relocating overseas and eventually working as a primary health nurse with the Princess Mary’s Royal Air Force Nursing Service.

She said: “I was aware of the roles and different trade groups within the service, however this field of nursing allowed me to be a specialist and to have more autonomy.

“I think having primary health care knowledge, skills and experience definitely assisted in the transition to occupational health.”

There have been many special moments from Ms Cole’s extensive career in OH nursing, which spans almost 18 years.

However, she said the most memorable was supporting the rehabilitation of an RAF regiment patient who had to have a lower limb amputation after being injured in Iraq.

Because he could not return to his duties due to his disability, Ms Cole supported the redirection of his career and helped him to become a paramedic.

Working with the South East Coast Ambulance Service, she assisted with adapting a bespoke ambulance so that the patient was able to undertake his paramedic training.

Sara Cole

Ms Cole said: “Whilst it was many years ago, it still stays with me because they really bought into making the changes to allow him to be employed at the [South East Coast] Ambulance Service.

“I assisted with the transition of him transferring into civilian life, but also, with the adaptations, it enabled him to be employed within a different service without any hindrance to him following the loss of his limb.”

Ms Cole said that very few people are aware of what OH professionals bring to the place of work.

She said “I’ve been in this specialty now for almost 15 years and no two days are the same.

“I think raising the profile is important [and] understanding how we feature [in the workplace].”

This was echoed by Helen Parsons, an employee health services manager at Virgin Atlantic Airways, who told Nursing Times that OH nursing was a “mysterious” specialty that the wider profession was unfamiliar with.

For that reason, Ms Parsons said she was “passionate about bringing the next generation of OH nurses” into the field.

She said: “It’s not just about attracting more people, it’s attracting the right people.

“It’s a dynamic and fast career, it’s not a slow and steady place.

“I think there are a lot of nurses out there who would like to get off the wards because it’s horrible out there at the moment.”

Reflecting on the national plans to expand OH services, Ms Parsons noted that the government would also have to find educators who would be willing to come out of practice and train the next generation of OH nurses.

It comes as the ongoing government consultation on OH services had previously raised concerns about the fact that the average age of OH nurses is increasing.

As such, it warned that many OH nurses are likely to retire in the next decade.

Ms Parsons agreed this was a problem. She said: “There’s a real age gap dynamic in occupational health.

“There’s a serious chunk of us who are on the older side of 45 and are not necessarily going to be in the workplace much longer ourselves.”

Despite this, Ms Parsons reflected on the span of her career positively, and said it was a standout memory every time she helped someone get back into work.

She said: “I’ve had people who have gone back to work and it’s taken me seven years to get them back. But they’ve gone and they thrive.

“Seeing somebody who was previously struggling for whatever reason – physical or mental – and then going out and about and seeing that person thrive at work is amazing.”

Ms Parsons described how she worked as an OH nurse through many major events in history, including the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak, the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan and the coronavirus pandemic.

“You make the best of it,” she said. “It’s taken me places I never thought I’d go. It’s a real adventure if you make it.”