Psychosocial and Physical Environment Interactions

The Total Health Environment

·         Making the health care settings safer for patients.

·         Decreasing workplace stress for healthcare providers

·       Improving  health care delivery

An article in the most recent issue of the Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, [ 2011; 39(Suppl 7): 147–152.] highlighted the fact that the physical and psychosocial elements of the work environment both contribute to employees taking long-term leave due to disability and injury.  My reading of this study is that although it is set in Denmark and doesn’t look at health care settings specifically, it has useful information that can be applied to health care settings.   The things that injured workers and made them sick were made worse by management styles that made them uncomfortable.  Conversely, workers coped better with difficult physical challenges when they felt better about the emotional surroundings they were in. 

The obvious point here is that if changing health care environments is to become part of the way we improve health care delivery, then we have to consider both the physical environment and the psychosocial environment.  This study provides some evidence that they are elements in interaction with each other.

http://blogs.cdc.gov/safehealthcare/