Searching for just a few words should be enough to get started. If you need to make more complex queries, use the tips below to guide you.
Article type: Review Article
Authors: Jenkins, Natasha | Smith, Gavin | Stewart, Scott | Kamphuis, Catherine*
Affiliations: Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Management, College of Health and Biomedicine (Paramedicine), Victoria University, St Albans, VIC, Australia
Correspondence: [*] Address for correspondence: Catherine Kamphuis, Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Management, College of Health and Biomedicine (Paramedicine) Victoria University, 47 McKechnie Drive, St Albans, VIC 8001, Australia. Tel.: +61 03 9919 2616; E-mail: catherine.Kamphuis@vu.edu.au.
Abstract: BACKGROUND: Workplace injuries place a significant physical, social and financial burden on organisations globally. Paramedics provide emergency management of workplace injuries, and are subjected to heightened injury risk as a direct consequence of providing such care. OBJECTIVE: This review aims to identify the current evidence reporting workplace musculoskeletal injury generally, and to relate this to pre-employment physical capacity testing within the paramedic industry specifically. METHOD: A search of the electronic databases (Ovid Medline, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, NIOSHTIC-2, RILOSH, CISDOC and HSELINE) was completed using the keywords musculoskeletal, workplace, injury, industrial, accident, pre-employment physical capacity testing, paramedic, emergency service employee, firefighter, and police. Articles were excluded if they did not describe pre-employment physical capacity testing, musculoskeletal injuries, or were not available in English. RESULTS: The electronic literature search identified 765 articles, following application of exclusion criteria: based on title/abstract of article (669); no relevance (62) or unavailable in English (4), 30 articles were included in this review. The review identified that physical fitness, gender, age, equipment and demographic variables were key factors in the current high rate of paramedic workplace injury. However, there is little evidence available to quantify the relationship between pre-employment physical capacity testing and subsequent injury amongst the paramedic cohort. CONCLUSION: Despite evidence suggesting that pre-employment physical capacity testing scores may be predictive of subsequent musculoskeletal injury in paramedics, there are currently no studies in this area. Quantifying the potential association between factors affecting the conduct of paramedic work and the type of injuries that result requires examination through future research.
Keywords: Workplace injury, prehospital emergency health care, predictive assessment
DOI: 10.3233/WOR-162422
Journal: Work, vol. 55, no. 3, pp. 565-575, 2016
IOS Press, Inc.
6751 Tepper Drive
Clifton, VA 20124
USA
Tel: +1 703 830 6300
Fax: +1 703 830 2300
sales@iospress.com
For editorial issues, like the status of your submitted paper or proposals, write to editorial@iospress.nl
IOS Press
Nieuwe Hemweg 6B
1013 BG Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Tel: +31 20 688 3355
Fax: +31 20 687 0091
info@iospress.nl
For editorial issues, permissions, book requests, submissions and proceedings, contact the Amsterdam office info@iospress.nl
Inspirees International (China Office)
Ciyunsi Beili 207(CapitaLand), Bld 1, 7-901
100025, Beijing
China
Free service line: 400 661 8717
Fax: +86 10 8446 7947
china@iospress.cn
For editorial issues, like the status of your submitted paper or proposals, write to editorial@iospress.nl
如果您在出版方面需要帮助或有任何建, 件至: editorial@iospress.nl