Home health care providers (HHP) are skilled and unskilled care givers who make it possible for elderly and disabled individuals to live comfortably in home environments. HHPs working in a home environment have an unrealized risk of experiencing occupational exposures to blood and body fluids, house cleaning chemicals, and violence. HHPs are included in NIOSH's Health care and Social Assistance NORA sector group, an area designated for moving research to practice in workplaces. The research prepared for this roundtable will communicate results of a two-city research project that examined bloodborne pathogen exposures, occupational assault, and psychosocial stress exposures experienced in patient/client home environments by HHPs. The roundtable will provide information to health and safety professionals about the types of occupational exposures skilled (nurses) and unskilled (homemakers) care providers are exposed to when providing services in the home. Pilot project
findings address topics such as exposure to blood and body fluids, limitations of engineering controls in the home, exposures to cleaning products, psychosocial stress, and occupational assault, all of which will be discussed.
• Personal Care Assistants and Blood Exposure in the Home Environment: Focus Group Findings. J. Zanoni, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL.
• Intervention Outcomes for Blood and Body Fluid in Home Care Workers. S.A. Amuwo, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL.
• Exposure Assessment for Violence in the Home Care Workplace. K. McPhaul, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD.
• Characterization of Occupational Hazards Experienced by Home Care Assistants. L.P. Brown-Ellington, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL.