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ISSN 1051-9815 (P)
ISSN 1875-9270 (E)
Impact Factor 2024: 1.7
WORK: A Journal of Prevention, Assessment & Rehabilitation is an interdisciplinary, international journal which publishes high quality peer-reviewed manuscripts covering the entire scope of the occupation of work. The journal's subtitle has been deliberately laid out: The first goal is the prevention of illness, injury, and disability. When this goal is not achievable, the attention focuses on assessment to design client-centered intervention, rehabilitation, treatment, or controls that use scientific evidence to support best practice.
WORK occasionally publishes thematic issues, but in general, issues cover a wide range of topics such as ergonomic considerations with children, youth and students, the challenges facing an aging workforce, workplace violence, injury management, performing artists, ergonomic product evaluations, and the awareness of the political, cultural, and environmental determinants of health related to work.
Dr. Karen Jacobs, the founding editor, and her editorial board especially encourage the publication of research studies, clinical practice, case study reports, as well as personal narratives and critical reflections of lived work experiences (autoethnographic/autobiographic scholarship),
Sounding Board commentaries and
Speaking of Research articles which provide the foundation for better understanding research to facilitate knowledge dissemination.
Narrative Reflections on Occupational Transitions, a new column, is for persons who have successfully transitioned into, between, or out of occupations to tell their stories in a narrative form. With an internationally renowned editorial board,
WORK maintains high standards in the evaluation and publication of manuscripts. All manuscripts are reviewed expeditiously and published in a timely manner.
WORK prides itself on being an author-friendly journal.
WORK celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2015.
*WORK is affiliated with the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists (CAOT)* *WORK is endorsed by the International Ergonomics Association (IEA)* *WORK gives out the yearly Cheryl Bennett Best Paper Award*
Abstract: BACKGROUND: Literature has shown that work maintenance is central in order to guarantee participation to persons with disability. Knowledge about potential sources of difficulties and obstacles is then crucial in order to prevent barriers and facilitate work maintenance and career development for persons with disabilities. OBJECTIVE: Studies analyzing on-the-job barriers among employed people with multiple sclerosis (MS) have found evidence for a role of clinical determinants. The aim of this study was…to describe in more detail the role of disability severity and of cognitive indices on work barriers. PARTICIPANTS: Thirty-two employed adults with a diagnosis of MS with mild to moderate disability severity were included in the study. They were involved in the descriptive study while attending their planned care in the MS unit. METHODS: Subjects completed neurocognitive tasks, a self-report measure of executive functioning and a face-to-face semi-structured interview exploring their perception of barriers at work. RESULTS: Regression analyses showed a specific role of disability severity on perception of barriers due to physical, cognitive and interpersonal relationships; cognitive indices, on the other hand, predicted barriers ascribed to company policy (cognitive score), to accessibility (planning score) or difficulties in cognitive and task related abilities (self-rated executive functioning). CONCLUSION: These findings underline the relevance of objective tasks and self-report questionnaire, direct and indirect multi-dimensional assessment of functioning for an early intervention planning. An ecological model of career development in adults with disabilities is also supported.
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Abstract: BACKGROUND: There is a need for more knowledge on how to manage companies towards healthier and more prosperous organizations with low levels of absenteeism. Relational Justice can be a useful concept when managing such organizations. OBJECTIVE: Organizational factors can help to explain why some companies have relatively low absenteeism rates, even though they are equal to other companies in many other aspects. Previous studies suggest that management may be one important factor. Efficient management…may depend on good relations between the leaders and the employees. The concept of Relational Justice is designed to capture these relations. Consequently, a Relational Justice framework may be used to understand why some companies have a low incidence of absenteeism. PARTICIPANTS: Managers from a representative body of Swedish companies. METHODS: Interviews were analyzed to explore whether the items representing the concept of Relational Justice can be used to further understand the strategies, procedures and structures that characterize organizations and management in companies with a low incidence of absenteeism. RESULTS: Strategies, procedures or principles related to Relational Justice were common and highlighted in companies with an incidence of absenteeism. The most frequently occurring factors were; to be treated with kindness and consideration, personal viewpoint considered and to be treated impartially. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggested that a Relational Justice framework could be used to increase understanding of the organizational and managerial factors typical for companies with a low incidence of absenteeism. A Relational Justice approach to organizational management may be used to successfully lower absenteeism, change organizations and promote healthy and prosperous companies.
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Keywords: Management, health, prevention, health promotion, organizational justice
Abstract: BACKGROUND: Robbery in workplaces represents a potentially traumatic experience for workers. OBJECTIVES: This article describes the set up and evaluation of a comprehensive psychological intervention designed to help to reduce the adverse consequences of bank robberies. PARTICIPANTS: The study population was selected among the employees of two Italian banks. METHODS: The psychological protocol was designed according to the results of a comprehensive non-systematic review of the scientific literature and it was evaluated at work site. RESULTS:…The protocol consists of a "pre-event" formative intervention and "post-event" psychological support. The qualitative data collected allowed us to understand that the reactions after a robbery can differ depending on the phase during which the workers were exposed to the robbery. We noted that the main consequences can be classified in emotional/sentimental reactions, behavioral reactions, physiological reactions and experiences during the event; emotions/feelings following the robbery and psycho/physical state and emotions/feelings in the following days. CONCLUSIONS: In a working environment, the chance to take advantage of a specific protocol for the traumatic event of a bank robbery offers both the company and the workers important tools for well-being, including post-robbery psychological support and classroom instructions.
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Abstract: BACKGROUND: The workplace is repeatedly being referred to as an appropriate arena for alcohol prevention and dissemination of information. Whether the pressure on employers to work with prevention is realistic or if these kinds of measures have any potential in real life is however rarely discussed. An alcohol education at a company in Sweden was to be evaluated in terms of effectiveness and this study reports the findings. OBJECTIVE: The primary aim of this study was to evaluate…whether an alcohol education program provided to all employees at a company in Stockholm, Sweden had any effect on alcohol consumption and alcohol-related knowledge. The increasing pressure on employers to work with alcohol prevention and on the concurrent problems of implementing and evaluating these types of interventions in real life is reviewed. METHODS: Pre- and post-test questionnaires were employed in a quasi-experimental design using a sample of convenience from two companies: one intervention and one control. Data was analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA-tests focused on the participants' AUDIT-scores, frequency of binge drinking and alcohol-related knowledge. RESULTS: Significant improvement in the employees' alcohol-related knowledge was shown, but there were no significant effects on alcohol consumption. CONCLUSIONS: Results of this study confirms most previous findings, but also raises the importance of considering the value of educating all employees and the willingness of employers to initiate preventive measures. Evaluating interventions of this kind is complicated, and it is also difficult to find results showing behavioural change in populations whose alcohol consumption is moderate.
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Keywords: Working life, alcohol prevention, education program, risk knowledge, effectiveness
Abstract: BACKGROUND: As the field of rehabilitation shifts its focus towards improving functional capacity instead of managing disability, return to work (RTW) and return to the community emerge as key goals in a person's recovery from major disabling illness such as stroke.…OBJECTIVE: To compile important factors believed to influence RTW after a stroke. METHODS: Based on a comprehensive literature review, we clustered similar factors and organized these factors based on the International Classification of Function, Disability and Health (ICF) framework: body functions or structure, activity participation, environmental factors and personal and psychosocial factors. RESULTS: Overall, stroke severity, as assessed by the degree of residual disability such as weakness, neurological deficit or impairments (speech, cognition, apraxia, agnosia), has been shown to be the most consistent negative predictor of RTW. Many factors such as the number of working years remaining until retirement, depression, medical history, and occupation need to be taken into consideration for stroke survivors, as they can influence RTW decision making. Stroke survivors who are flexible and realistic in their vocational goal and emotionally accept their disability appear more likely to return to work. CONCLUSIONS: There are many barriers to employment for stroke survivors ranging from physical and cognitive impairments to psychosocial and environmental factors.
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Abstract: BACKGROUND: Morningness and eveningness preference (chronotype), an endogenous component of the circadian clock could play a key role in a worker's ability for adjusting to shift work. Morning types are those individuals who prefer going to bed and waking up early, whereas Evening types tend to sleep at later hours and find it difficult to get up in the morning. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to survey, the relationship between morningness-eveningness type, sleep quality and insomnia in…shift worker nurses. PARTICIPANTS: The participants comprised 160 nurses working in three different wards in two university hospitals in Iran. METHODS: Nurses completed the Horne and Ostberg [23] questionnaire to assess the distribution of morningness or eveningness preference, the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index [22] and Insomnia Severity Index questionnaire [21] to measure self reported sleep quality and insomnia. Demographic information was also collected in order to explore the relationship between circadian rhythms, sleep quality and prevalence of insomnia in shift workers. RESULTS: The results showed that the prevalence of poor sleep quality was high. More than half of the participants had poor sleep. Evening type nurses had worse sleep quality in our study (P < 0.05). There is not any significant association between the shift type and age of the nurses with their quality of sleep (P > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The results suggested that nurses who had a morning sleep preference had better sleep quality. A survey of chronotype of nurses could be useful, so that individuals may be assigned to different shifts according to their sleep preference.
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