Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Recruitment & retention
    • Wellbeing
    • Occupational Health
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Recruitment & retention
    • Wellbeing
    • Occupational Health
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise

Occupational HealthLatest NewsWellbeing

Occupational health must consider how it presents itself to wider world

by Nic Paton 4 Jan 2008
by Nic Paton 4 Jan 2008

Instead of constantly blaming others for being overlooked and undervalued, occupational health needs to take a long, hard look at what it does and how it presents itself to the wider world, Wales’ top nurse told the conference.


Rosemary Kennedy, chief nursing officer for the Welsh Assembly, conceded that occupational health is often misunderstood but, contentiously, argued that it could be occupational health professionals, as much as anyone else, who are to blame for this.


“If you are undervalued as a service, are you part of the problem? Why is it that, when you have such an important role to fulfil, there are still large tranches of the workforce, including many managers, who do not value you?” she questioned.


Kennedy argued that the issue of confidentiality, while hugely important to OH, could actually be part of the problem.


OH often physically locates itself out of sight to ensure that patients are confident they could come to OH in confidence.


But this could also lead to OH being out of mind, with OH nurses withdrawing into their shells, rather than striving to maintain a higher profile within their organisations.


“There is a problem of visibility, a problem of being seen in the workplace. How can you say someone is fit for work if you do not understand the challenges of that job?” Kennedy asked.


“I would like to see OH services out there really knowing what all the jobs are in their organisation,” Kennedy said.


Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

OH should be a first port of call, not simply somewhere managers go when they have run out of ideas about to deal with a problem, she added.


What OH needed to be doing more was embracing what she called the three “ships” – partnership, leadership and ownership.

Nic Paton

Nic Paton is consultant editor at Personnel Today. One of the country's foremost workplace health journalists, Nic has written for Personnel Today and Occupational Health & Wellbeing since 2001, and edited the magazine from 2018.

previous post
Occupational health centres recommended by Dr Donald Bruce of Trident Medical Services
next post
Royal College of Nursing and Society of Occupational Medicine conference: news in brief

You may also like

Managing risk assessments for employees who are deaf...

9 Sep 2025

Workplace health benefits need to be simplified

9 Sep 2025

Two in three NHS staff say pay is...

9 Sep 2025

Sickness absence soars to nearly two weeks per...

9 Sep 2025

NHS trusts ranked in new league tables

9 Sep 2025

Employees more likely to be staying put and...

9 Sep 2025

Women less confident of achieving pay or leadership...

9 Sep 2025

Bigger budgets, but greater scrutiny – welcome to...

9 Sep 2025

Personnel Today Awards 2025 shortlist: HR director of...

9 Sep 2025

Why do whistleblowing hotlines still matter?

9 Sep 2025

  • Workplace health benefits need to be simplified SPONSORED | Long-term sickness...Read more
  • Work smart – stay well: Avoid unnecessary pain with centred ergonomics SPONSORED | If you often notice...Read more
  • Elevate your L&D strategy at the World of Learning 2025 SPONSORED | This October...Read more
  • How to employ a global workforce from the UK (webinar) WEBINAR | With an unpredictable...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits Live
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Recruitment & retention
    • Wellbeing
    • Occupational Health
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise