An occupational health nurse is an expert in workplace wellbeing
An occupational health nurse is a listener, a source of support, and a problem-solver. Tarja Siik has been working in HUS’s occupational healthcare services for 20 years, helping employees manage their workload and prevent stress before it becomes too much.
In occupational healthcare, every interaction is an opportunity to promote wellbeing at work. Tarja Siik is an occupational health nurse for HUS employees who work with children and adolescents.
A tired employee sits down on a chair in the appointment room on the fifth floor of HUS’s occupational healthcare services. The employee leans on the table and says that there’s way too much stress at work and the situation doesn’t seem to be getting any better. Occupational Health Nurse Tarja Siik offers the employee a tissue and reassures them that there’s no hurry to be anywhere right now—so there’s time to talk and listen.
Preventive work is at the heart of occupational healthcare
Tarja Siik graduated in 1992 as a public health nurse and, at the same time, as a registered nurse. The recent nursing graduate began working as a nurse at the HUS Skin and Allergy Hospital and found that she was particularly interested in preventive health care. As a result, Tarja soon found herself working as a nurse in HUS occupational healthcare services, and when the occupational health nurse at the time left their position, she was offered the role. And she has now been happy in her role for 20 years. Initially, her area of responsibility was internal medicine, and later, the Children and Adolescents department.
“In occupational healthcare, the emphasis is on prevention. We always need to be a few steps ahead of people getting ill. Our goal is for everyone to be able to cope well at work.”
Solving challenges as a team
An occupational health nurse is a professional in both nursing and teamwork.
“You really can’t do anything alone. We take a very multidisciplinary approach to our work. Often, we assemble a group of professionals to tackle current challenges, consisting of an occupational health nurse, a physician, a physiotherapist, and a psychologist. It is also very important to us to have direct contact with the departments.”
Tarja Siik often meets with management, supervisors, and employees from the Children and Adolescents department to stay up to date on how people are doing. What kinds of challenges are currently associated with their work? What kind of things are coming up? What should we look out for at this point?
“We often go to workplaces just to ask around—who are working there at the moment, what ages are they, what kinds of exposures are there, what kinds of substances or equipment are used, and so on. We review the information we’ve received together with the team and set goals for occupational healthcare services for the coming year, for example.”
You don’t have to face your workload alone
Tarja Siik knows very well what everyday life is like at HUS, especially when it comes to treating illnesses in children and adolescents. In a way, the job always involves a certain amount of stress.
“When you’re dealing with difficult patient cases, you can’t just not have emotions. Fortunately, we have a variety of support systems in place at HUS, such as debriefing discussions and clinical supervision, which are worth taking advantage of early on. Often, by the time people come to seek help at occupational healthcare services, they are already under a lot of strain on many different levels, and I sometimes find myself having a gentle thought, ‘If only you’d come here a little sooner.’ But I’m so glad that you came now.’”
In occupational healthcare, every interaction is an opportunity to promote wellbeing at work. And the occupational health nurse is an important partner in tackling the challenges of the workplace. Together, we can usually figure out what to do.