Pre-employment screening or initial health assessment? A study of New Zealand occupational health nurses’ practice

Occupational health nurses in New Zealand complete pre-employment assessments as part of the employment process. There is ambivalent information within the literature on the effectiveness of pre-employment assessments and little literature on the current practice of occupational health nurses in New Zealand. This study sets out to describe current assessment practice by occupational health nurses in New Zealand and to describe what nurses do when the nurse assesses an applicant who has some undiagnosed pathology. This study was conducted by a postal questionnaire which was sent to members of the New Zealand Occupational Health Nurses Association. The questionnaire included questions about the type of assessments the nurse made during pre-employment assessments, what actions the nurse took when discovering an abnormal symptom and how the nurses referred the applicant for further health care. The study indicates that 20% of applicants assessed by occupational health nurses have abnormal signs and symptoms and that occupational health nurses refer these applicants to a wide range of other health professionals. The responses also indicate that occupational health nurses in New Zealand need to be more aware of the sections of the Human Rights Act 1993 related to the employment process. It is suggested that occupational health nurses who wish to do more than the essential assessments related to job tasks complete Initial Health Assessments after the applicant has been employed.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Nursing

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Grantor

Eastern Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• Haywood, Barbara

• New Zealand
• occupational health nurses
• pre-employment assessments
• screening
• nursing practice
• primary health care
• surveys

Statement dc:rights

• All rights reserved

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10652/6611

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:null:10652/6611