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Review
. 2020 May 18:8:2050312120918999.
doi: 10.1177/2050312120918999. eCollection 2020.

Occupational health and safety hazards faced by healthcare professionals in Taiwan: A systematic review of risk factors and control strategies

Lin Che Huei  1 , Lin Ya-Wen  2 , Yang Chiu Ming  2 , Hung Li Chen  2   3 , Wang Jong Yi  4 , Lin Ming Hung  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Occupational health and safety hazards faced by healthcare professionals in Taiwan: A systematic review of risk factors and control strategies

Lin Che Huei et al. SAGE Open Med. .

Abstract

Background: Healthcare professionals in Taiwan are exposed to a myriad of occupational health and safety hazards, including physical, biological, chemical, ergonomic, and psychosocial hazards. Healthcare professionals working in hospitals and healthcare facilities are more likely to be subjected to these hazards than their counterparts working in other areas.

Objectives: This review aims to assess current research literature regarding this situation with a view to informing policy makers and practitioners about the risks of exposure and offer evidence-based recommendations on how to eliminate or reduce such risks.

Methods: Using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses review strategy, we conducted a systematic review of studies related to occupational health and safety conducted between January 2000 and January 2019 using MEDLINE (Ovid), PubMed, PMC, TOXLINE, CINAHL, PLOS One, and Access Pharmacy databases.

Results: The review detected 490 studies addressing the issue of occupational health and safety hazards; of these, 30 articles were included in this systematic review. These articles reported a variety of exposures faced by healthcare professionals. This review also revealed a number of strategies that can be adopted to control, eliminate, or reduce hazards to healthcare professionals in Taiwan.

Conclusion: Hospitals and healthcare facilities have many unique occupational health and safety hazards that can potentially affect the health and performance of healthcare professionals. The impact of such hazards on healthcare professionals poses a serious public health issue in Taiwan; therefore, controlling, eliminating, or reducing exposure can contribute to a stronger healthcare workforce with great potential to improve patient care and the healthcare system in Taiwan. Eliminating or reducing hazards can best be achieved through engineering measures, administrative policy, and the use of personal protective equipment.

Implications: This review has research, policy, and practice implications and provides future students and researchers with information on systematic review methodologies based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses strategy. It also identifies occupational health and safety risks and provides insights and strategies to address them.

Keywords: Occupational health and safety; Taiwan; control strategies; healthcare professionals; risk factors.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
PRISMA flow diagram. Source: Beltrami et al. and Ozturk and Babacan.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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    1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Workplace safety and health: healthcare workers, 2018, https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/healthcare/default.html (accessed 17 February 2019).
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