Caring for healthcare professionals: improving prevention in occupational healthcare

How can healthcare professionals be supported to stay healthy and well-functioning at work? Working in nursing involves dealing with specific job demands which can have an impact on nurses’ health. In turn, health problems can affect their work functioning, with possible negative consequences for nurses themselves as well as for their patients.
First of all, this thesis aimed to elicit novice nurses’ needs for occupational health support. It can be concluded that novice nurses have a need for knowledge, psychosocial support and physical support to remain healthy and well-functioning in their (future) work.
The second aim was to evaluate two approaches to a mental module for job-specific workers’ health surveillance for nurses and allied health professionals, aimed to improve impaired work functioning and mental health. Both approaches consisted of online screening and receiving personalised, automatically generated feedback on screening results. In an innovative approach, this was followed by offering tailored access to self-help e-mental health interventions. In a more conventional approach the screening and feedback were followed by a preventive consultation with an occupational physician. It can be concluded that the innovative approach for WHS is not (cost-)effective in improving work functioning, mental health, or both, compared to a control group. However, the more conventional approach is cost-effective in improving work functioning, compared to a control group.