Listening to food workers: Factors that impact proper health and hygiene practice in food service

Background

Foodborne disease is a significant problem worldwide. Research exploring sources of outbreaks indicates a pronounced role for food workers'' improper health and hygiene practice.

Objective

To investigate food workers'' perceptions of factors that impact proper food safety practice.

Method

Interviews with food service workers in Baltimore, MD, USA discussing food safety practices and factors that impact implementation in the workplace. A social ecological model organizes multiple levels of influence on health and hygiene behavior.

Results

Issues raised by interviewees include factors across the five levels of the social ecological model, and confirm findings from previous work. Interviews also reveal many factors not highlighted in prior work, including issues with food service policies and procedures, working conditions (e.g., pay and benefits), community resources, and state and federal policies.

Conclusion

Food safety interventions should adopt an ecological orientation that accounts for factors at multiple levels, including workers'' social and structural context, that impact food safety practice.     

Academic--practice partnerships in practice research: A cultural shift for health social workers

Academic practice partnerships in practice research support health social workers in engaging in research that is embedded within their practice. This shift in culture enables social workers to join in a health service discourse that is increasingly data -driven and focused on effective practice and demonstrated quality of care for patients. The mentoring model is described as enabling practitioners to superimpose research skills onto existing practice skills. An academic practice research collaboration can reduce the distance between research and practice, contribute to a body of knowledge for health social work and promote health social workers as 'research focused practitioners'.     

Multifaceted contributions: health workers and smallpox eradication in India

Smallpox eradication in South Asia was a result of the efforts of many grades of health-workers. Working from within the confines of international organisations and government structures, the role of the field officials, who were of various nationalities and also drawn from the cities and rural enclaves of the countries in these regions, was crucial to the development and deployment of policies. However, the role of these personnel is often downplayed in official histories and academic histories, which highlight instead the roles played by a handful of senior officials within the World Health Organization and the federal governments in the sub-continent. This article attempts to provide a more rounded assessment of the complex situation in the field. In this regard, an effort is made to underline the great usefulness of the operational flexibility displayed by field officers, wherein lessons learnt in the field were made an integral part of deploying local campaigns; careful engagement with the communities being targeted, as well as the employment of short term workers from amongst them, was an important feature of this work.     

Commitment of licensed social workers to aging practice

This study sought to identify client, professional, and employment characteristics that enhance licensed social workers' commitment to aging practice. A series of binary logistic regressions were performed using data from 181 licensed, full-time social workers who reported aging as their primary specialty area as part of the 2004 NASW's national study of licensed social workers. Several variables were identified as being significant predictors of commitment to aging, including clients' source of insurance, practitioners' years of experience in social work and gerontology, perceived adequacy of training, number of social work colleagues in the work environment, perceived appropriateness of delegated tasks, and annual income. This study illuminates critical areas of need to promote professional commitment to aging practice. Promotion of training and competency-based education and the need for sufficient job challenge and appropriate assignment of roles (that is, those that are consistent with practitioners' skills and abilities) will encourage commitment to working in the field ofgerontology.     

The health of clients referred to social workers in an intake team

Though numerous reports have strongly argued that there is a need for a closer collaboration between the health and social services, studies investigating the health of clients in contact with the personal social services have been few and limited. This study collected information regarding the physical and mental health of clients referred to social workers in the local authority intake team by means of questionnaires completed by the clients, and a selected sub-sample was also given an interview. Details were also taken regarding the social worker's assessment of health, reasons for referral and their intervention. The results indicated that the proportion of patients with physical or mental illness, or both, were very high and that social workers tended to under-report or under-estimate these illnesses. While there is some suggestion that the social workers were more likely to carry out more interviews with those clients who were ill, either physically or mentally, the contacts between social workers and medical personnel were very limited indeed.     

Ethics and technological advances: contributions of social work practice

Rapid technological advances in biomedicine have created ethical dilemmas for social workers and other health professionals. This article reviews three areas in which advances have been most dramatic; life support for terminally ill and elderly persons, reproductive technologies and services to severely impaired newborns. It presents principles and processes that can help structure decision making when choices are many and difficult to make. Finally, it suggests ways that social work can use its own technology to help humanize and demystify sophisticated medical technology.     

Functions of social workers in a home health agency

The activities of social workers employed by a public health nursing agency were studied. The data suggested that nurses and social workers collaborate more than prior studies have shown but also suggested that the nurses were selective in their decisions to refer cases to social workers. The study raised questions about the clarity of the agency's expectations of social workers and of nurses.     

The role of social workers in addressing nonmedical needs in primary health care

Nonmedical needs are intricately linked to health. Unaddressed nonmedical needs often result in poorer health and increased healthcare costs. Although social workers are well positioned to address nonmedical needs, their role in healthcare environments to address nonmedical needs is limited. The limited role relates to a lack of reimbursement streams, which stems from poor articulation about their unique contributions. An analysis of a case study in which a social worker using AIMS, a protocolized care coordination model, was undertaken to highlight specific activities performed by social workers. Implications for patient health outcomes and healthcare costs are discussed.     

医院社会工作者的战略地位和卫生经济学贡献

医院社会工作者是跨学科、跨专业、跨领域医疗团队的重要成员,在卫生保健体系和医院质量管理中处于战略地位。更为重要的是,医院社会工作者通过健康教育宣传、社会资源动员、预防和缓解医疗纠纷等专业服务,可为医院做出难以估量的卫生经济学贡献。     

Sources of strain between physicians and social workers: implications for social workers in health care settings

This paper analyzes the sources of strain between the professions of medicine and social work. The two professions are compared in relation to (1) the organization and socialization process of professional training; (2) perspectives on patient care, illness and role of the health care professional; (3) attitudes toward knowledge and data; (4) attitudes toward and preparation for team-work; (5) perspectives on the role of the patient; (6) perceptions of social work's function.     

The impact of 'statutory duties' on mental health social workers in the UK

In the UK, applications for involuntary admission to psychiatric units are made mainly by specially trained approved social workers (ASWs). Proposed changes in the legislation will permit other professionals to undertake these statutory duties. This study aimed to examine how ASW status impacts upon work pattern and workload stresses by comparing ASWs with other mental health social workers who did not carry statutory responsibilities. A multimethod design was adopted that included a cross-sectional national survey of mental health social workers (n=237, including 162 ASWs), and a telephone survey of mental health service managers (n=60). Data were collected using a semistructured questionnaire and diary, the content of which was derived from focus-group work and standard measures. Features of job content, working patterns and conditions were described and their association with stress, burnout and job satisfaction examined. ASWs were older and had been qualified longer than non-ASWs. The working patterns and conditions of the two groups did not differ, although ASWs did more hours on duty. ASWs received less support at work, particularly from supervisors and their role afforded less decision latitude than that of non-ASWs. ASW status was related to an elevated GHQ score, particularly among males. Emotional exhaustion was very high (over two-thirds in both groups) but ASWs and non-ASWs did not differ in this or any other feature of burnout, only 8% of the sample were actually 'burnt-out', being more common among ASWs. ASWs were more dissatisfied and were more likely than non-ASWs to want to leave their job. Given that ASW status increased stress and job dissatisfaction, especially for men, and was related to a desire to leave one's current job, it seems likely that extending statutory duties to other professionals will increase levels of stress, burnout and dissatisfaction in these groups also. In turn, this might have consequences for staff recruitment and retention.     

Computerized information systems for social workers in health care

Social workers' contributions to preventive medicine; discharge planning; and effective integration of hospital, family, and community resources are becoming increasingly important within the changing context of health care delivery. Information technology can be a powerful tool for developing efficient, accurate, and comprehensive patient records. In spite of the potential that information technology offers health care social workers, the actual use of computerized patient data has been limited and slow to develop. This article describes the development of a prototype information system that supports the diverse tasks of health care social workers in ambulatory care, shows how a shared computerized database can improve coordination of patient care among multiple health care disciplines, and addresses emerging issues as a growing number of social workers in health care use computerized information systems.     

Concerns and challenges facing social workers in family practice.

Twenty-five social work members of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine responded to a survey in which they identified their chief concerns and challenges encountered in family practice. Of nine areas of concern to social workers in interdisciplinary practice identified from the literature, respondents viewed as most important the achievement of acceptance and regard among other disciplines for the social worker and the value of his/her contribution to family practice. This was followed closely by the associated challenges of developing interdisciplinary relationships and fostering an accurate understanding of the role functions of the social worker in family practice. To confront these and other concerns, careful attention to three major needs suggested by the survey results is advocated: (1) the need for social workers to maintain high standards of performance in family practice, (2) the need for family physicians and other health care personnel to understand the role functions of the social worker and examine their attitudes toward collaboration with social workers, and (3) the need for regular and constructive dialogue between all personnel in family practice.     

Health social workers sources of knowledge for decision making in practice

This article presents findings from research examining knowledge social workers in a health network in Victoria, Australia identified as informing their decision-making. Data for 13 patients, and in-depth interviews with six social workers who worked with these patients, were studied. A thematic analysis of interviews revealed that participants identified reliance on past experience and contextual/situational information as underpinning their decisions, demonstrating their commitment to person-in-environment perspectives. However, despite the availability of a repository of empirical evidence, no respondent made use of this. This study provided insight into health practitioners’ sources of knowledge, highlighting gaps and areas for further exploration.     

Evaluation of social work practice in health care settings

The purpose of this article is to encourage social workers in health care settings to evaluate the effectiveness of their practice. Recent studies of intervention outcome in health care settings are reviewed on four dimensions. Because most of these utilize large group designs and social workers in direct practice rarely conduct this type of research, single-system designs are proposed as a complementary and feasible approach to evaluation. Issues in the use of single-system designs within health care settings and a case example will be discussed.