PR1-20151
PRESS RELEASE LEUVEN, BELGIUM2015
The 41stBoard Meeting of The Federation of Occupational Health Nurses within theEuropean Union (FOHNEU) was held in Leuven, Belgium7th- 9th May 2015. The meeting washosted by the Belgian Association of Occupational Health Nursesandheld at the Groep IDEWE premises.The FOHNEU Board is thanking the host for making the meeting arrangements enjoyable.
In the President´s Address, Dr. StylianiTziaferiwelcomed all and thanked the Board for attending the meeting in Belgium. The President emphasized the role of FOHNEU to collaborate with European organisations, especially EU-OSHA and Eurofound and to seek funding f.ex. Horizon 2020,to start research programs on OH Nursing.
The FOHNEU President recently visited to EU-OSHA in Bilbao to discuss about any possible future involvement with EU-OSHA or it´s projects. The next FOHNEU Congress is FOHNEU´s main priority, “New Occupational Health Horizons” will be held in 16th – 18th March 2016 in the beautiful city of Rotterdam, more information:
The meeting was attendedby 18 participants and two observers from Belgium. The FOHNEU Board Meeting participants were warmly welcomed to Belgium by the President of FOHNEU StylianiTziaferi and by the host, Christine Dekoster. The new National Representative for AET from Spain, Dr. Alfonso Meneses Monroy was also welcomed to the meeting.During the meeting two Officers were elected; Judith Fakkel van den Berge was re-elected as the Vice-President and Jaqueline Kurowski was elected for the Secretary for the period 2015-2018.
During the meeting FOHNEU board had the delight to listen toa visiting speaker; Dr. MalgorzataMilczarek from EU-OSHA, who gave a presentation about EU-OSHA Preventing stress – campaign and presented some results from ESENER 2- study.
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Highlights from the National Updates
Denmark
Denmark is in a pre-electionperiod and therehasbeen no new governmentactivity.Initiativesrelated to the GovernmentWork Environment Strategy 2020 continue with the
focus on 25%reduction of accidents, and 20% reduction of psychosocialstrain and MSDs.
Finland
The health care renewal is ongoing in Finland and the new government will take actions. It affects also the status and situation of OHS and the financing of OHS is also under discussion in Finland. The frame decision was also commented by FAOHN. FAOHN has currently 1700 members but the figure is decreasing because of the big aging group of OHN´s.
France
National Order of nurses was dissolved by vote of National Assembly. The national association for OHN´s in France held a common front with the National order of Nurses to block the plan to transfer the vaccinations to pharmacists.
Greece
Occupational Health and Safety in Greece is well established and although there are no clear guidelines for the qualifications –except for OH physicians and Safety officers- of the staff employed in occupational health services, there are around 100 OH nurses and health visitors working in the field around the country, although contact with all of them is not yet officially established.
It is compulsory by law that every employer offers occupational health and safety services. As of today the professions that are obligatory to be employed by large firms or to provide external OHS services are safety officers and occupational physicians. Most large firms have also one or more OH nurse or health visitor. The majority of workplaces in Greece are small and medium size and the majority of them outsource OHS from the existing external services. OH Nurses or health visitors are also employed by external occupational health and safety services licensed by the Ministry of Labor.
Ireland
No further developments between the Health Service Executive (HSE) and the INMO Occupational Health Nurses section regarding a standardised delivery of Occupational Health services throughout the public health service (HSE) due to lack of agreement over the terms of reference.The Annual INMO OHN conference will be held on May 20th in Cork “Occupational Health –Update on Common Conditions and Trends in the Workplace.The INMO OHN Section continues to run OH related workshops at a regional level.
Netherlands
The Dutch OHN Associationhavestarteda new projectcalled“taakherschikking”-roleredefinition. Thiswilldescribe the roleof the Occupationalhealthnurse in relation toOccupationalhealthphysicians.During the last months the Dutch OHN Association hasactively worked for the preparations for the FOHNEU 2016 Congress in Rotterdam.
Sweden
The chaotic parliamentary situation remains in Sweden with a minority government without support from the majority in the Parliament. The National Board of Swedish OHN´s arranges the National Study Days May 7 – 8 May 120 participants and 20 exhibitors will meet in Stockholm under the theme Health, Illness and Profitability.
Turkey
OHS in Turkey are organized according to the 2012 Occupational Health and Safety Law and related regulations but some regulations remain incomplete. According to the Law, there are two main and different kinds of units’ responsible for occupational health and security services in the country. One is called the workplace health and safety unit (WHSU), located and managed by the company employer, and the other the Joint Health and Safety Unit (JHSU), which is independent from enterprises and private commercial units in specific areas.
All companies with more than 50 workers are legally required to establish a WHSU. In addition, the independent roles of OHNs were not defined but instead they were included as personnel who assist a physician. According to the latest regulation; OHN is defined as an assistant of physician under the group of others, OHN professionals state that OHN should be defined as a separate entity and its job duties and responsibilities were stated clearly.
The next FOHNEU Board Meeting will take place in
Helsinki, Finland, in 10th- 12th September 2015.
Established 1993Reg.14230/96