Hospital Employee Health – March 1, 2024

CDC Seeks Clarity on Masks, Respirators

An advisory panel to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently completed draft isolation guidelines for respiratory patients, but got a thumbs down and a loaded question for their trouble: “Should N95 respirators be recommended for all pathogens that spread by the air?”

Wounded Healers: Long COVID Community Helps Its Own

Despite her limitations, Karyn Bishof, MS, founded the COVID-19 Longhauler Advocacy Project and began distributing information to others. Hospital Employee Heath reached out to Bishof for an interview.

Return to Light Duty Is Key to Full-Time Work

Healthcare workers’ physical injuries account for almost 50% of all injuries reported nationally. The proverbial insult that follows is that the longer they miss work, the less likely they are to return at all. At six months, there is less than a 50% chance they will return. The key justification for returning injured employees to light duty is that it is significantly associated with a return to full-time work and can positively re-engage workers.

Threat of Reinfection Includes Long COVID

Accumulating research suggests reinfections with SARS-CoV-2 increase the likelihood of developing long COVID, the horrific post-acute syndrome with indefinite duration and a panoply of neurological, autoimmune, and physical conditions. Moreover, the risk of developing long COVID incrementally increases with each reinfection, according to a study that found this cumulative effect continues in up to three reinfections.

Telling It Like It Is: Too Many HCWs Are Unhealthy

With more than 35 years of experience in employee health, wellness coaching, and lifestyle medicine, Leticia Nichols, NP-C, is not afraid to share a few inconvenient truths about poor diets and disease, which the healthcare system is primarily designed to treat rather than prevent.