When you think of disruptive behavior that occurs in a health care setting, you might think of patients or their family members. However, disruptive behavior among healthcare workers has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years, to the point where the Joint Commission that accredits healthcare organizations now charges institutions who are seeking certification with the responsibility for addressing undesirable behaviors.

Let’s be clear, there is no such thing as a safe workplace. Sure we can slap each other on the back and brag to one another about the four years without a recordable injury and we can tell ourselves that we have achieved a Utopian risk-free workplace but the reality is, there is always some probability that a worker will be harmed in the course of doing his or her job.

When it comes to losing weight, many people focus on eating less and exercising more. But results of a new survey of psychologists suggest dieters should pay attention to the role emotions play in weight gain and loss if they hope to succeed. For the survey, conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center, more than 1,300 licensed psychologists were asked which strategies were essential to helping their clients lose weight and keep it off.

The time of reflection on the old year is over. With the brand new year we look to the future with an eye on improving our selves and our impact on the world. For this new year, let’s consider some personal resolutions that focus on behaviors you, an EHS pro, could adopt to increase your effectiveness in helping build your team’s safety culture:

You probably have your own ways of dealing with stressful times. Some may be healthy, such as calling a friend, cooking a comforting dinner, or curling up in bed earlier than usual, according to Harvard Medical College’s HealthBeat newsletter.

U.S. high school students have shown significant progress over the past two decades in improving many health-risk behaviors associated with the leading cause of death among youth—motor vehicle crashes—according to the 2011 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) released recently by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Question: “At many of our manufacturing sites we are reaching a point in our safety journey that they are struggling to understand.

What would you prefer: The carrot or the stick? Punishment works and is frequently used in less mature safety programs as a reaction to some incident that hurt someone. 

Mowing the lawn can be a real chore. It is certainly not something I look forward to. It's also a chore that can be quite hazardous. According to…SAFETY DATA.

I agree with the premise that $$ only drives algorithmic (my word) tasks. Safety is not algorithmic... it is heuristic. We are asking for strategies and decisions, not just following directions, to get real results.