Dr Antonina Semkina is Research Associate at the NIHR Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce, King’s College London. (613 words)
Unit researchers Antonina Semkina and Caroline Norrie attended the annual Health and Wellbeing at Work Conference that took place in Birmingham National Exhibition Centre on 12-13 March, 2024. The conference featured 13 themes, including Future of Work; Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion; Health and Conditions; and Culture, Values and Engagement, among others. There were 100+ exhibitors representing Occupational Health providers, NHS and social care organisations, consultancies, training agencies, and charities.
Caroline and Antonina recently published the final report from their NIHR-funded study “Exploring the awareness and attractiveness of Occupational Health (OH) careers: perspectives of trainee doctors, nurses, OH trainees, OH career leavers” so they particularly enjoyed the opportunity to connect with and hear presentations from policy makers, researchers, practitioners, and providers in the field of OH.
Highlights included: Dr Ali Hashtroudi, Clinical Director of Occupational Health, Safety and Wellbeing at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust, London who talked about assessment and management of migraine in the workplace. Migraine is the highest cause of years lived with disability amongst those aged 15-49 and has a huge impact on people’s career paths and the economy in general. Kevin Daniels, Professor in Organisational Behaviour, Norwich Business School, University of East Anglia provided insights from over seven years’ research on the contents, implementation and continuous development of workplace wellbeing strategies and programmes and discussed how developing and evolving a coherent programme of wellbeing actions conveys authentic concern for employees’ health and wellbeing. Andrew Davidson, National Head of Employment, Hempsons LLP delivered a series of Employment law masterclasses, covering the essentials of employment contracts, constructive dismissals, and whistleblowing among other topics. Of interest was his talk about AI in the workplace. Mr Davidson provided an overview of the risks of AI use in HR (e.g., perpetuation of existing biases), and discussed the existing and emerging regulations in the UK and the EU (e.g., the ongoing consultation on the UK AI Regulation White Paper). He also provided advice on organisational practices (e.g., timely development of AI strategy, using diverse and representative data sets to train algorithms, and including human oversight and decision-making in AI processes).
The mental health and emotional well-being theme featured strongly during the conference. Dr David R Lee, Clinical Director of Sleep Unlimited UK provided a session about The Impact of Shift Work on Sleep – a topic that is discussed widely in relation to health and social care workforce, as well as workers in other sectors. Shift workers account for 14% of the UK’s workforce, and evidence shows that poor management of shift worker sleep and shift-work related fatigue lead to accidents at work and on the roads, and can cause short- and long-term health conditions. Dr Lee highlighted the problems to be aware of and strategies to minimise the impact of shift working patterns on employee health, wellbeing, productivity, and safety. Neil Greenberg, Professor of Defence Mental Health, King’s College London and managing director of March on Stress, delivered a talk about Workplace Mental Health Screening for Trauma Exposed Workforces. The session enabled delegates to comprehend what is meant by a mental health screening process within an organisational setting, to identify its individual components and how they fit together, and to get a practical understanding of the evidence for and against screening.
Finally, all conference delegates had a unique opportunity to book a half hour session of Puppy Therapy during their visit delivered by the Paws in Work team. Research has found that interaction with animals has a positive effect on mental health and is helpful in dealing with anxiety and reducing stress levels. This opportunity was highly appreciated by the delegates!
Dr Antonina Semkina is Research Associate at the NIHR Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce, King’s College London.
Thanks to Paws in Work for the image, right.
Related Unit Work
Final report: Norrie, C., Semkina, A., Moriarty, J., Kessler, I., Elaswarapu, R., & Boaz, A. (2023) Exploring the awareness and attractiveness of Occupational Health (OH) careers, London: NIHR Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce, The Policy Institute, King’s College London.