Hazards in the hospital: educating the workforce through its union.

The hospital workforce is exposed to many occupational hazards of which most hospital workers are unaware. The author and another health educator, both employed with the California State Department of Health, conducted occupational health and safety educational sessions for the membership of a hospital workers' union. These sessions taught nonprofessional workers how to recognize hospital hazards, how to eliminate or minimize these hazards, and informed workers of their legal rights under the California Occupational Safety and Health Act. We first had to convince the union health and safety officer that we had skills and information which would be of benefit to the union. Once that hurdle was crossed, we encountered some difficulty conducting an adequate needs assessment and including the target population in the planning of the educationals. Two series of educational sessions for rank-and-file members were conducted and were enthusiastically received by those attending, with a request for more sessions.