Violence against metropolitan bus drivers and fare collectors in Brazil

OBJECTIVE To analyze the correlation between sociodemographic factors and working conditions of bus workers in a metropolitan area and violence against them.METHODS This cross-sectional study used a nonprobabilistic sample estimated according to the number of workers employed in bus companies located in three cities in the Belo Horizonte metropolitan region in 2012 (N = 17,470). Face-to-face interviews were conducted using a digital questionnaire. The factors associated with violence were analyzed in two stages using Poisson regression, according to each level. The magnitude of the association was evaluated using prevalence ratios with robust variance and a statistical significance of 5%, and 95% confidence intervals were obtained.RESULTS The study sample comprised 782 drivers and 691 fare collectors; 45.0% participants reported at least one act of violence in the workplace in the last 12 months, with passengers being predominantly responsible. The age of the bus workers was inversely associated with violence. Chronic diseases, sickness absenteeism, and working conditions were also associated with violence.CONCLUSIONS The findings on the correlation between violence and working conditions are essential for implementing prevention strategies by transportation service managers.

Advances and challenges in oral health after a decade of the “Smiling Brazil” Program

ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE To analyze oral health work changes in primary health care after Brazil’s National Oral Health Policy Guidelines were released. METHODS A literature review was conducted on Medline, LILACS, Embase, SciELO, Biblioteca Virtual em Saúde, and The Cochrane Library databases, from 2000 to 2013, on elements to analyze work changes. The descriptors used included: primary health care, family health care, work, health care policy, oral health care services, dentistry, oral health, and Brazil. Thirty-two studies were selected and analyzed, with a predominance of qualitative studies from the Northeast region with workers, especially dentists, focusing on completeness and quality of care. RESULTS Observed advances focused on educational and permanent education actions; on welcoming, bonding, and accountability. The main challenges were related to completeness; extension and improvement of care; integrated teamwork; working conditions; planning, monitoring, and evaluation of actions; stimulating people’s participation and social control; and intersectorial actions. CONCLUSIONS Despite the new regulatory environment, there are very few changes in oral health work. Professionals tend to reproduce the dominant biomedical model. Continuing efforts will be required in work management, training, and permanent education fields. Among the possibilities are the increased engagement of managers and professionals in a process to understand work dynamics and training in the perspective of building significant changes for local realities.

Work, malaise, and well-being in Spanish and Latin-American doctors

ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE To analyze the relations between the meanings of working and the levels of doctors work well-being in the context of their working conditions. METHOD The research combined the qualitative methodology of textual analysis and the quantitative one of correspondence factor analysis. A convenience, intentional, and stratified sample composed of 305 Spanish and Latin American doctors completed an extensive questionnaire on the topics of the research. RESULTS The general meaning of working for the group located in the quartile of malaise included perceptions of discomfort, frustration, and exhaustion. However, those showing higher levels of well-being, located on the opposite quartile, associated their working experience with good conditions and the development of their professional and personal competences. CONCLUSIONS The study provides empirical evidence of the relationship between contextual factors and the meanings of working for participants with higher levels of malaise, and of the importance granted both to intrinsic and extrinsic factors by those who scored highest on well-being.

Relationship of health workers with their organization and work: a cross-cultural study

ABSTRACT We analyzed the differences, by Student’s t-test and ANOVA, between nurses and physicians from Portugal, Poland, Spain, and United Kingdom regarding their relationship with their work and organization. In total, 1,401 professionals answered the HSA-QHPR questionnaire. There are different levels of connection between physicians and nurses. The United Kingdom has the lowest levels of connection with the work while Portugal has the highest levels of relationship with the organization. The results provide guidelines for the development of policies and differential strategies aimed at improving the quality of healthcare service.

Derivation methods for hybrid knowledge bases with rules and ontologies

Trabalho apresentado no âmbito do Mestrado em Engenharia Informática, como requisito parcial para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Informática

Criação de Manual de Procedimentos para Gestão de Risco de dispositivos médicos de uma Unidade de Saúde

A melhoria progressiva na prestação de cuidados de saúde que se verifica nos dias de hoje, deve-se maioritariamente ao desenvolvimento de novas tecnologias médicas, que se traduzem na criação de inovadores dispositivos médicos, cujo fim é auxiliar no diagnóstico, prevenção e tratamento de doenças, melhorando assim as condições de trabalho e os cuidados oferecidos aos pacientes. No entanto estas melhorias apenas são vantajosas quando as novas tecnologias são utilizadas de forma segura, o que leva a uma preocupação crescente com a segurança dos profissionais de saúde e dos pacientes em ambiente hospitalar. Como forma de reduzir e controlar os riscos existentes, as unidades de saúde introduziram mecanismos de gestão que permitem o conhecimento das fontes de risco e respetivos mecanismos de ação. A presente dissertação de mestrado apresenta uma proposta de modelo de Manual de Procedimentos para Gestão de Risco de Dispositivos Médicos, aplicável a todos os dispositivos médicos existentes nas Unidades de Saúde. Para a criação deste manual, foram utilizados por meio de adaptação, as etapas da gestão de risco definidas na Norma ISO 14971:2007 em conjunto com o método de gestão de risco utilizado pela Unidade Local de Saúde de Matosinhos O desenvolvimento deste manual de procedimentos permitirá a esta unidade de saúde, a aquisição e fornecimento de informações úteis na tomada de decisão sobre os procedimentos de controlo de risco de dispositivos médicos, com o objetivo de manter o risco destes dispositivos dentro dos níveis previamente estabelecidos e auxiliar a tomada de decisão de programas de manutenção preventiva e de aquisição de dispositivos médicos.

Implementação de ferramentas lean numa empresa de elevadores

Trabalho de Projeto

Satisfação profissional e vínculo laboral : prestadores de cuidados directos num hospital distrital

RESUMO - A flexibilidade dos contratos de trabalho é cada vez mais uma realidade. Em 2009, cerca de 18% da população activa em Portugal tinha um vínculo instável. Na instituição onde se realizou o estudo, 38,8% dos profissionais de saúde têm este tipo de vínculo. Este estudo foi realizado num hospital distrital com a participação de 103 prestadores de cuidados directos – assistentes operacionais, enfermeiros, médicos e técnicos de diagnóstico e terapêutica - aos quais foi dado um questionário de auto-resposta. Através deste, fez-se a comparação dos níveis de satisfação dos profissionais com diferentes tipos de vínculo. Concluiu-se que as dimensões mais valorizadas são as relacionais e condições de trabalho e saúde. A dimensão da Segurança no Emprego surge no meio da tabela. Ao contrário do que dizem os estudos, a autonomia e poder foi das menos valorizadas. Os profissionais com vínculo laboral instável dão maior importância à segurança. As dimensões relacionais são as que apresentam maiores níveis de satisfação. As que apresentam menores níveis são a Remuneração, Condições de Trabalho e Saúde e Segurança no Emprego, sendo que nesta ultima se registam diferenças significativas entre profissionais com diferentes tipos de vínculo. Verifica-se com 95% de confiança que existem diferenças significativas na dimensão da Segurança no Emprego, onde os profissionais com vínculo instável apresentam menores níveis de satisfação. Os profissionais com vínculo instável demonstram que este facto lhes trouxe consequências negativas ao nível pessoal e social. Não existe significância na diferença entre os níveis da satisfação dos profissionais de saúde com diferentes vínculos. -----------------------------------ABSTRACT - Employment contract flexibility is becoming a reality with each passing day. In 2009, around 18% of the active population in Portugal had an unstable bond. In the institution where this study was conducted, 38.8% of the health professionals have this kind of arrangement. This study was conducted in a district hospital with the participation of 103 direct care providers - operating assistants, nurses, doctors and technical diagnostic and therapeutic - that were given a self-response questionnaire. Through this questionnaire, the levels of satisfaction of the professionals with different types of employment bond were compared. It was concluded that the most valued dimensions are relational and work and health conditions. Work security appears in the middle of the table. Contrary to what studies say, autonomy and power were less valued. Professionals with an unstable bond give greater importance to safety. The relational dimensions are those with higher levels of satisfaction. Those with lower levels are the wages, working conditions and health and safety in employment, where in health and safety in employment show significant differences between professionals with different types of employment bond. We can verify with a 95% confidence interval that there are significant differences in the work safety dimension, where professionals with unstable employment bonds present lower levels of satisfaction. Professionals with an unstable employment bond show that this fact brought them negative consequences at the personal and social level. There is no significant difference between the levels of satisfaction of health professionals with different types of employment bond.

Improving writing through creativity

Trabalho de Projecto apresentado para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Mestre em Ensino do Inglês

The impact of global forces on the individual: empirical evidence from the German clothing industry

Starting from theoretical perspectives on globalisation, the following article analyses how current working conditions are affected by globalisation processes. For this purpose, recent developments in the German clothing sector are traced back to the power of economic globalisation processes. Characterising the German clothing sector as pioneer in economic globalisation, we use empirical findings to illustrate how current processes of globalisation influence the work place: At organisational level, corporate strategies aim at rationalisation, standardisation and flexibilisation of work in order to response to the economic pressure of global markets. At individual level these strategies, in turn, speed up working processes and intensify working processes for the employees. Although these developments form strong trends, we conclude that the local embeddedness of companies is still of high importance with regard to organisational and individual consequences of globalisation.

Verificação interna periódica de esfigmomanómetros digitais

Os equipamentos de medição utilizados nos hospitais têm uma função muito importante na deteção e diagnóstico de doenças como é o caso da pressão arterial. Entre esses equipamentos encontram-se os esfigmomanómetros digitais portáteis que são em muitos casos os primeiros a serem utilizados e a fornecerem um primeiro diagnóstico da pressão arterial do doente como é no caso das urgências hospitalares. Para que os diagnósticos prescritos pelos profissionais de saúde - médicos e enfermeiros seja o mais correto é necessário conhecer as condições de trabalho em que se encontram os esfigmomanómetros digitais existentes nas unidades de saúde. Sendo os esfigmomanómetros digitais equipamentos com uma importância relevante na vida do ser humano, estes deveriam fazer parte da lista de equipamentos que estão englobados na metrologia legal, situação que neste momento ainda não foi concretizada e cada hospital toma a decisão espontânea se efetua a calibração ou verificação internamente dos seus esfigmomanómetros digitais. Pretende-se com este trabalho dar a conhecer o estado ao nível dos erros de alguns esfigmomanómetros digitais existentes nos hospitais envolvidos no trabalho e desenvolver um procedimento de verificação interna dos mesmos com auxílio de um manómetro analógico calibrado e um estetoscópio duplo – método de medição auscultatório - e comparar esses resultados com a utilização de um simulador – método de medição oscilométrico.

Salud y Seguridad del Trabajo en Portugal : apuntes diversos

RESUMO - El autor aborda algunos aspectos relativos a la Salud y Seguridad del Trabajo (SST) en Portugal llamando la atención para, esencialmente, intentar sostener la tesis de que, desde mediados de la década de los 90, se observaron importantes avances en la mejoría de las condiciones del trabajo en la perspectiva de la SST, aunque se mantuvieron algunos problemas en la práctica concreta de las normativas legales. Incluso con estas mejoras, las tasas de frecuencia de accidentes de trabajo y de enfermedades profesionales en Portugal todavía se mantienen muy elevadas necesitando, por tanto, estrategias más “agresivas” para concienciar la sociedad portuguesa en torno a las políticas públicas de SST efectivamente promotoras de prevención de riesgos profesionales y de la promoción de la salud de quien trabaja. Es por tanto indispensable que la protección de la salud y de la seguridad de los trabajadores en los puestos de trabajo sea encarada como un conjunto de actividades de indiscutible utilidad para todos los representantes del mundo del trabajo e que la agenda política pase a valorizar, aún más, la promoción de espacios de trabajo saludables y seguros, con la consecuente valorización de las variables individuales en la estrategia nacional de salud y seguridad.--------------------------ABSTRACT – In the present work, the author analyzes several aspects of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) in Portugal. He provides evidence sustaining the assumption of an important progress, since the mid-nineties, in the improvement of the working conditions from an OHS perspective. Nevertheless, several problems still remain in the practical application of legal regulations. In addition, despite of these improvements, the frequency rates of working accidents and occupational diseases remain very high. Hence, more “aggressive” strategies are required to increase the awareness of the Portuguese society relative to the OHS public policies, whose effectiveness has been demonstrated either in terms of occupational risks prevention and workers health promotion. The protection of workers’ health and safety at the workplace must then be assumed as an activity of indisputable utility by all stakeholders. The political agenda must thus promote even more the promotion of healthy and safe workplaces. As a consequence, there would be also a higher development of individual aspects, and not only environmental data, in the national strategy of occ

Factores de risco para doenças músculo-esqueléticas não específicas no sector das limpezas em ser

The aim of this paper is to characterize complaints in the upper limbs, shoulders, neck and back- lumbar region directly related to musculo-skeletal disorders in a sampling of 114 cleaners from seven cleaning (janitor) companies, operating at eight client organizations. Complaints had been diagnosed as stiffness, any pain, numbness, paraesthesiae, tingling, cold feeling and blanching of at least one finger tip, according to a temporal criteria of symptoms were present now or have been present on at least 4 days during the last 7 days, or symptoms have been present on at least 4 days during at least one week in the last 12 months. It was analyzed the severity of the complaints (interference with current activities) and the simultaneous occurrence of multiple symptoms. The causes of medical consultation in the last year were analyzed (osteo-articular pathology of the vertebral spine, of the upper and lower limbs, depressive syndromes and other complaints of the lower limbs among others). In the end, the relation between persistent complaints and musculo- skeletal pathology related to work activities was analyzed, considering particularly the age of the workers and the existence of osteo-articular pathology.

Selection Constructive based Hyper-heuristic for Dynamic Scheduling

A função de escalonamento desempenha um papel importante nos sistemas de produção. Os sistemas de escalonamento têm como objetivo gerar um plano de escalonamento que permite gerir de uma forma eficiente um conjunto de tarefas que necessitam de ser executadas no mesmo período de tempo pelos mesmos recursos. Contudo, adaptação dinâmica e otimização é uma necessidade crítica em sistemas de escalonamento, uma vez que as organizações de produção têm uma natureza dinâmica. Nestas organizações ocorrem distúrbios nas condições requisitos de trabalho regularmente e de forma inesperada. Alguns exemplos destes distúrbios são: surgimento de uma nova tarefa, cancelamento de uma tarefa, alteração na data de entrega, entre outros. Estes eventos dinâmicos devem ser tidos em conta, uma vez que podem influenciar o plano criado, tornando-o ineficiente. Portanto, ambientes de produção necessitam de resposta imediata para estes eventos, usando um método de reescalonamento em tempo real, para minimizar o efeito destes eventos dinâmicos no sistema de produção. Deste modo, os sistemas de escalonamento devem de uma forma automática e inteligente, ser capazes de adaptar o plano de escalonamento que a organização está a seguir aos eventos inesperados em tempo real. Esta dissertação aborda o problema de incorporar novas tarefas num plano de escalonamento já existente. Deste modo, é proposta uma abordagem de otimização – Hiper-heurística baseada em Seleção Construtiva para Escalonamento Dinâmico- para lidar com eventos dinâmicos que podem ocorrer num ambiente de produção, a fim de manter o plano de escalonamento, o mais robusto possível. Esta abordagem é inspirada em computação evolutiva e hiper-heurísticas. Do estudo computacional realizado foi possível concluir que o uso da hiper-heurística de seleção construtiva pode ser vantajoso na resolução de problemas de otimização de adaptação dinâmica.

The influence of task design on upper limb muscles fatigue during low-load repetitive work: A systematic review

Ergonomic interventions such as increased scheduled breaks or job rotation have been proposed to reduce upper limb muscle fatigue in repetitive low-load work. This review was performed to summarize and analyze the studies investigating the effect of job rotation and work-rest schemes, as well as, work pace, cycle time and duty cycle, on upper limb muscle fatigue. The effects of these work organization factors on subjective fatigue or discomfort were also analyzed. This review was based on relevant articles published in PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science. The studies included in this review were performed in humans and assessed muscle fatigue in upper limbs. 14 articles were included in the systematic review. Few studies were performed in a real work environment and the most common methods used to assess muscle fatigue were surface electromyography (EMG). No consistent results were found related to the effects of job rotation on muscle activity and subjective measurements of fatigue. Rest breaks had some positive effects, particularly in perceived discomfort. The increase in work pace reveals a higher muscular load in specific muscles. The duration of experiments and characteristics of participants appear to be the factors that most have influenced the results. Future research should be focused on the improvement of the experimental protocols and instrumentation, in order to the outcomes represent adequately the actual working conditions. Relevance to industry: Introducing more physical workload variation in low-load repetitive work is considered an effective ergonomic intervention against muscle fatigue and musculoskeletal disorders in industry. Results will be useful to identify the need of future research, which will eventually lead to the adoption of best industrial work practices according to the workers capabilities.