Healthcare is among the most imperative constructs of human civilization dealing with marinating the health of the masses. Across the world, healthcare is majorly controlled by government and public organizations whereas there exists private healthcare organizations. Therein, due to regulations and maintenance of standards in service delivery, there are public health agencies tasked with that responsibility. The agencies are tasked with jurisdictions that trespass the public domain and into private HealthCare providers. Their responsibilities therefore are significant and have the ability to affect the delivery of services as well as working conditions of practitioners in healthcare. This paper will therefore endeavour to discuss the role such public health agencies such as the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention to illuminate on the key responsibilities of the agency. Further, the discourse will illuminate on the influence of the agency to the working environment of healthcare personnel.
Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention is a public health agency tasked by the government with the mandate of promotion of health and improvement of the quality of health through the task of disease control and prevention. The major functions of the agency are achieved through coordination of numerous other partners in public health within the United States as well as athwart the world. The perspective of the agency’s functions are dispensed in various modes that include; monitoring of health, health complications research, investigations and detection of health problems in the country, development, and advocacy of policies pertained to public health, preventative strategies formulation and implementation as well as the provision of leadership and training in healthcare(Sorenson, 2015).Due to the comprehensive nature of the functions that the agency has to provide, it has evolved and developed various component organizations that deliver specific tasks related to public health. For the purpose of this discussion and the objectives of the paper, the discourse will employ the use of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) for an intrinsic discussion.
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The major purpose of the national institute for occupational safety and health is to dispense the mission of the center for disease control and prevention’s mandate in ensuring the safety of all the people working within the health care industry. The agency is adamant in its mandate and dispenses its function from an informed perspective of research and prevention in order to improve safety and efficiency in healthcare. The function is in cognizant that the healthcare practice is a potentially hazardous environment. The risks involved in healthcare range from risks of exposure to disease, infections, injury as well as psychological conditions. Therefore, the agency informed of these risks formulates policies, rules, and regulations that must be implemented in healthcare practices to safeguard the safety of the professionals in the field (Sorenson, 2015).Cognisant of the dynamism in healthcare, the agency provides information support across the various disciplines in healthcare to ensure the safety of the people is considered.
Workplace influence of the institute of occupational safety and health
Tied to the working conditions of workers within healthcare, the agency has significance influence how various professionals conduct their business in the as they dispense their functions. Therein, through the illumination of risks that exist, the agency formulates mechanisms of vulnerability risk assessments as well as the mitigation measures. From this perspective, the institute conducts research and studies on the hazardous conditions. It thereafter formulates recommendations in the procedures employed in the functions of healthcare workers. The heal care system is complex; it involves various departments and sections that have varying functions but with the ultimate goal of health promotion and quality of life(Hernandez, 2003). Such responsibility is immense and more often than not may ignore the working conditions of the professionals in it. The agency, therefore, acts as a third party observer and makes recommendations to ensure that the while the interests of public health to the public are being met, the professionals in the field have the best possible working environment devoid of conspicuous risks.
It’s imperative to understand the positions of the agency in the dispensation of functions and its mandate. Therefore, its role resides in the dispensation of information regarding health and safety standards as well as make recommendations towards the procedures that reduce that risk. It's indirect participation in public health ensures that the integrity of the information as a non-partisan organization. The agency offers a perspective that informs the conduct of healthcare professionals especially in thehandling of potential hazards in the workplace. For instance, due to the toxicity level of some of the materials practitioners work with, the Institute informs of the degree of toxicity and informs on the handling precautions (Kaufman, 2014).The agency influences the overall understanding of the relevance of safety standards, precautions, and safety equipment in the healthcare system.
Role of agency workers
From the mandate of the agency, the roles and functions of the workers within are defined. The agency acts as an information hub in regards to occupational safety and health. Therefore most of the responsibilities of the workers are based on research. For instance, there is a wide variety of professional composition in the agency to handle information gathering and research in all fields. Therefore, the functions of workers therein are stratified in accordance with specific disciplines and hierarchy of the functions. For instance, the agency employs the skills of investigators, in fact, finding functions. Instances of injury and exposure happen within healthcare facilities, and the primary job of the investigators is to understand the reason the incident happened for the purpose of mitigation. Therefore, the investigator in that sense must determine the fault that took place and the source, therefore, the investigation must deduce whether it came from equipment failure and irregularities or from the procedures used during the incident. Another function of workers is primary research and information gathering on safety issues within healthcare facilities. Under this stratum, the functions and responsibility of the worker are to collect information and data. The researcher is also tasked with the responsibility of collecting data of toxicity reports of various hazardous materials that healthcare professionals interact with. Further other functions include the safety mechanism testing especially for the safety equipment used in healthcare facilities (Brownson, 2017). The research is then used to make valuable recommendations.
There are various roles that public health agencies play for the improvement of healthcare. As identified in the above discourse, the functions of such agencies are invaluable to the promotion of health and quality of life of all the people involved. However, it’s imperative to note that such agencies such as the national institute of occupational safety and health do not work in isolation. Coordination of the various stakeholders within the healthcare system is imperative to the success agencies
References
Brownson, R. C., Baker, E. A., Deshpande, A. D., & Gillespie, K. N. (2017). Evidence-based public health . Oxford University Press.
Hernandez, L. M., Rosenstock, L., & Gebbie, K. (Eds.). (2003). Who will keep the public healthy?: educating public health professionals for the 21st century . National Academies Press.
Kaufman, N. J., Castrucci, B. C., Pearsol, J., Leider, J. P., Sellers, K., Kaufman, I. R., ... & Sprague, J. B. (2014). Thinking beyond the silos: emerging priorities in workforce development for state and local government public health agencies. Journal of Public Health Management and Practice , 20 (6), 557.
Sorenson, G., & Barbeau, E. (2015). Steps to a Healthier US Workforce: Integrating Occupational Health and Safety and Worksite Health Promotion: State of the Science. Washington, DC: The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH); 2004. Commissioned paper for The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health Steps to a Healthier US Workforce Symposium.
