Job matching and return to work: Occupational rehabilitation as the link

Issue title: Workers and the Worksite: Research and Practice

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Isernhagen, Susan J.

Affiliations: DSI Work Solutions, Inc., 130 West Superior Street, Suite 625, Duluth, MN 55802, USA. Tel.: +1 218 625 1051; Fax: +1 218 625 1052; E-mail: sisernhagen@dsiworksolutions.com

Abstract: Return to work after injury or illness is important for the worker and the employer. Medical providers manage and treat the worker with the illness or injury. Except in cases of focused specialists, the medical professional's role is to take care of a patient, rather than empower a worker. As much as there is promotion of the workers compensation health care system to be similar to sports medicine, there are significant dissimilarities. One major barrier is that the medical caregivers do not know the demands of jobs as they would know the details of sports. Thus, there is a gap in returning a worker to function as the medical professional cannot accurately match the worker to specific jobs. A new model of job function matching, based on research and skills of occupational rehabilitation professionals, is proposed to bridge the gap between the medical community, the employers and the workers.

Keywords: Functional capacity evaluation, work conditioning, work hardening, job descriptions, post offer testing

Journal: Work, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 237-242, 2006