Occupational health and hazards exposures among clinical workers : A scoping review.

Occupational health works towards the preservation of workers from injuries, illnesses, and hazardous exposures that might jeopardize their physical, emotional, and social well-being at the workplace. Occupational hazards are elements of the work environment that have the capacity for causing harm to the worker and include biological, chemical, physical, mechanical, and psychosocial hazards. Biological hazards include infectious agents; chemical hazards include harmful substances; physical hazards include radiation and noise; mechanical hazards include sharp injuries and falls; while psychosocial hazards include stress and burnout. Healthcare workers are at high risk of exposure to occupational hazards due to frequent exposure to infectious substances, chemicals, physically taxing work, and emotionally taxing environments. The risk of injury, infection, or chronic health problems, among others, makes these workers susceptible to hazards when not managed adequately. Improving occupational health systems and understanding the exposures to health hazards faced by clinical workers is important for improving safety in the workplace and protecting the workers. Main Objective: Therefore, the general aim of the scoping review is to systematically review the existing evidence on health hazards and exposures of clinical healthcare workers in Ghana. Methods: The purpose of this specific study is to apply the scoping review methodology to uncover the variety of available data concerning health risks in Ghanaian clinical healthcare workers in their workplaces. The Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) approach to conducting scoping reviews will be used for this inquiry, in compliance with the PRISMA-ScR criteria for reporting such investigations. In addition to the grey literature sources for use in the scoping review approach, systematic searches of the electronic databases PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar will be performed to find the pertinent papers for inclusion in the inquiry. Relevant data will be extracted using a standard charting form for the presentation of the results in a descriptive manner, with the findings being reported in tabular form to reveal the range of health hazards experienced in the work environment for the different categories of health workers in the country. Expected Output: This scoping study is anticipated to provide a thorough assessment of the forms, prevalence, and determinants of occupational health hazards among clinical workers in Ghana by mapping the body of existing literature. Consequently, it will help identify knowledge gaps that drive appropriate evidence-based occupational health policies and workplace safety measures. It will also help concentrate future research that is required to promote health and safety within Ghana's clinical workforce.