About Healthcare Workers

Key points

  • Healthcare is the fastest-growing sector of the U.S. financial system. It employs over 22 million workers.
  • Women represent nearly 80% of the healthcare work force.
  • Healthcare workers face a wide range of hazards on the job.

Facts

The many hazards that healthcare workers can experience include:

  • Sharps exposures
  • Infectious disease exposures
  • Chemical and drug exposures
  • Musculoskeletal hazards
  • Violence
  • Stress

Although it's possible to prevent or reduce these hazards, healthcare workers continue to experience injuries and illnesses at work. Cases of nonfatal work injury and illness with healthcare workers are among the highest of any industry sector.

Interactive dashboards

The characteristics of health and other workers by detailed occupation

Here you can access three dashboards containing charts that use 2019 and 2020 American Community Survey Data. The dashboards provide information on income and selected demographic characteristics by year for health workers and workers in other occupations. For these dashboards, the healthcare workforce is composed of a wide variety of occupations including:

  • Nurses
  • Physicians
  • Dentists
  • Community health workers
  • Direct support professionals
  • Caregivers

Resources

Training

Group of healthcare workers smiling for picture.
Training provides healthcare workers with knowledge and skills to perform their jobs safely and efficiently.

Safety Culture in Healthcare Settings

This training course provides science and evidence-based information for healthcare workers with a focus on six competencies. The course is designed to increase knowledge about work-related hazards and address organizational and personal strategies to promote a safe and healthy work environment.

NIOSH Training for Nurses on Shift Work and Long Work Hours

The purpose of this online training program is to educate nurses and their managers about the health and safety risks associated with shift work, long work hours, and related workplace fatigue issues and relay strategies in the workplace and in the nurse’s personal life to reduce these risks.

Guidance

Webinar: Germicidal Ultraviolet use in Healthcare Settings‎

GUV technology can be used to reduce the spread of respiratory infections without changing existing patient care practices. In this webinar, four experts provide a comprehensive overview of GUV technology and its application in controlling respiratory infections in healthcare environments.


General

Stress

Fatigue

Burnout

Substance Use

Suicide

NIOSHTIC-2 is a database of occupational safety and health publications funded in whole or in part by NIOSH.