RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Risk assessment and work adjustment according to EU legislation may safeguard pregnant employees and their offspring. Knowledge on management perspectives in relation to implementation of protective measures is limited. OBJECTIVES: The primary aim was to describe Danish hospital managers' engagement in pregnancy policy and work adjustment for pregnant employees. The secondary aim was to investigate how managers' characteristics and the setting affect engagement and behaviour. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study of survey data from 212 managers. Outcomes were within dimensions of health promotion, pregnancy policy, work adjustment, collaboration, manager support, and sick leave. Logistic and ordinal logistic regression models were applied to identify associations between background information and outcomes. RESULTS: Of the managers included, 84% arranged meetings and 76% conducted occupational risk assessment. Most managers (96%) engaged in dialogue with the employees before sick leave. Most managers felt competent in providing guidance for pregnant employees and 99% considered work adjustment important, mainly to safeguard mothers and children. The self-reported data showed positive associations between female managers and feeling competent to guide the employee. Further, management training was associated with meetings with pregnant employees. Seniority was associated with feeling competent to guide and dialogue. Midwifery support was associated with competence in guiding employees about risk factors. CONCLUSION: Work adjustment and risk assessment for pregnant employees are considered a priority by Danish hospital managers. Overall, managers feel competent guiding pregnant employees. However, managers experience midwifery support beneficial for the guidance of pregnant employees.
RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Sick leave during pregnancy is frequent and 36 % of Danish pregnant employees are on sick leave > 14 days. Health care professionals are considered a risk population. This intervention applies preventive sessions including the pregnant employee, her manager and a midwife in addition to usual practiceat Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark (AUH). It is hypothesised that pregnant employees who participate in preventive sessions will have less sick leave and report better wellbeing compared to the reference group. METHODS: All departments at AUHare cluster randomized. A total of 25 and 24 departments are allocated to the intervention and reference group, respectively. The intervention is protocolled with preventive sessions in addition to usual practice. The reference group receives usual practice. The primary outcome is mean number of days on sick leave during pregnancy. Secondary outcomes are wellbeing measured as physical and mental health, general work ability, work-life balance, manager support, and completed work adjustments during pregnancy. Data on sick leave will be collected from the hospital payment system and survey data will be collected at inclusion and follow-up. DISCUSSION: This study will contribute to limited experimental research aimed to reduce sickness leave during pregnancy. The overall strength is the study design with easy access to study participants within a large hospital. The main limitation of the study is the high complexity of the study. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The trial is registered in ClinicalTrials.gov with ID number 29-2019-03.
