Occupational Health and Safety in the Healthcare Sector

Healthcare workers are exposed to several different occupational risk factors, and they pay
an important tribute in terms of occupational diseases and work-related injuries. Currently, the
COVID-19 pandemic has focused the attention on the problem of the infectious risk, which is certainly
among the risks typically expected and specifically recognized for the health personnel, but also other
occupational risks should not be overlooked, as, e.g., the risks associated with work-organization
factors and with the exposure to chemical and physical agents. The health consequences associated
with the exposure to all these factors have relevant impacts in terms of induced diseases, DALYs,
sickness absence from work and costs for the health systems.
According to these premises, this reprint has collected manuscripts addressing topics related
to the prevention of the occupational risks in the healthcare sector, including original articles and
reviews on the prevention of work-related illnesses and injuries of the health personnel, as well as
on the evaluation of the risks in the healthcare workplaces, and on the topics of risk perception and
of the knowledge and attitudes of the workers towards the preventive procedures and the use of
protections. The themes of the prevention of occupational infectious risk, biomechanical overload
of the musculoskeletal system and work-related psychosocial factors are specifically discussed in the
papers collected.