Development and validation of a HEXACO situational judgment test

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a construct-based situational judgment test of the HEXACO personality dimensions. In four studies, among applicants, employees, and Amazon Mechanical Turk participants (Ns = 72–305), we showed that it is possible to assess the six personality dimensions with a situational judgment test and that the criterion-related validity of the situational judgment test is comparable to the criterion-related validity of traditional self-reports but lower than the criterion-related validity of other-reports of personality. Test–retest coefficients (with a time interval of 2 weeks) varied between.55 and.74. Considering personality is the most commonly assessed construct in employee selection contexts (Ryan et al., 2015), this situational judgment test may provide human resources professionals with an alternative assessment tool

Assessing significant others' cognitions and behavioral responses in occupational health care for workers with a chronic disease

Purpose: To examine current practices of occupational health professionals in assessing significant others’ cognitions and behavioral responses that may influence work outcomes of workers with a chronic disease. Methods: A survey study among occupational health professionals, focusing on the assessment of illness perceptions, work-related beliefs and expectations, and behavioral responses of significant others of workers with a chronic disease. We performed linear regression analyses to investigate which factors are related to occupational health professionals’ assessment practices. We used thematic analysis to analyze qualitative data on occupational health professionals’ reasons to assess or overlook significant others’ cognitions and behavioral responses. Results: Our study sample included 192 occupational health professionals. Most seldom asked about significant others’ cognitions and behavioral responses. Organizational norms and occupational health professionals’ self-efficacy were related to reported assessment practices. Reasons to assess significant others’ cognitions and behavioral responses included recognizing their influence on work participation, and occurrence of stagnation. However, occupational health professionals indicated some doubt whether such assessment would always contribute to better care. Conclusions: It is not common practice for occupational health professionals to assess significant others’ cognitions and behavioral responses, although they recognize the influence of these factors on work outcomes. More research is needed as to how occupational health professionals can best address the role of significant others, and apply these new insights in their daily practice.Implications for rehabilitation Most occupational health professionals do not commonly ask about significant others’ cognitions and behavioral responses despite the possible influence of these factors on work outcomes. Occupational health professionals may be able to better support workers with a chronic disease by paying more attention to the influence of significant others. Aside from asking about practical support, occupational health professionals should consider asking about significant others’ illness perceptions, work-related beliefs and expectations, and other behavioral responses

Evaluation of the Berlin polytrauma definition:A Dutch nationwide observational study

BACKGROUND The Berlin polytrauma definition (BPD) was established to identify multiple injury patients with a high risk of mortality. The definition includes injuries with an Abbreviated Injury Scale score of >= 3 in >= 2 body regions (2AIS >= 3) combined with the presence of >= 1 physiological risk factors (PRFs). The PRFs are based on age, Glasgow Coma Scale, hypotension, acidosis, and coagulopathy at specific cutoff values. This study evaluates and compares the BPD with two other multiple injury definitions used to identify patients with high resource utilization and mortality risk, using data from the Dutch National Trauma Register (DNTR). METHODS The evaluation was performed based on 2015 to 2018 DNTR data. First, patient characteristics for 2AIS >= 3, Injury Severity Score (ISS) of >= 16, and BPD patients were compared. Second, the PRFs prevalence and odds ratios of mortality for 2AIS >= 3 patients were compared with those from the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Unfallchirurgie Trauma Register. Subsequently, the association between PRF and mortality was assessed for 2AIS >= 3-DNTR patients and compared with those with an ISS of >= 16. RESULTS The DNTR recorded 300,649 acute trauma admissions. A total of 15,711 patients sustained an ISS of >= 16, and 6,263 patients had suffered a 2AIS >= 3 injury. All individual PRFs were associated with a mortality of >30% in 2AIS >= 3-DNTR patients. The increase in PRFs was associated with a significant increase in mortality for both 2AIS >= 3 and ISS >= 16 patients. A total of 4,264 patients met the BPDs criteria. Overall mortality (27.2%), intensive care unit admission (71.2%), and length of stay were the highest for the BPD group. CONCLUSION This study confirms that the BPD identifies high-risk patients in a population-based registry. The addition of PRFs to the anatomical injury scores improves the identification of severely injured patients with a high risk of mortality. Compared with the ISS >= 16 and 2AIS >= 3 multiple injury definitions, the BPD showed to improve the accuracy of capturing patients with a high medical resource need and mortality rate

The Dutch nationwide trauma registry: The value of capturing all acute trauma admissions

Introduction: Twenty years ago the Dutch trauma care system was reformed by the designating 11 level one Regional trauma centres (RTCs) to organise trauma care. The RTCs set up the Dutch National Trauma Registry (DNTR) to evaluate epidemiology, patient distribution, resource use and quality of care. In this study we describe the DNTR, the incidence and main characteristics of Dutch acutely admitted trauma patients, and evaluate the value of including all acute trauma admissions compared to more stringent criteria applied by the national trauma registries of the United Kingdom and Germany. Methods: The DNTR includes all injured patients treated at the ED within 48 hours after trauma and consecutively followed by direct admission, transfers to another hospital or death at the ED. DNTR data on admission years 2007-2018 were extracted to describe the maturation of the registry. Data from 2018 was used to describe the incidence rate and patient characteristics. Inclusion criteria of the Trauma Audit and Research (TARN) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Unfallchirurgie (DGU) were applied on 2018 DNTR data. Results: Since its start in 2007 a total of 865,460 trauma cases have been registered in the DNTR. Hospital participation increased from 64% to 98%. In 2018, a total of 77,529 patients were included, the median age was 64 years, 50% males. Severely injured patients with an ISS≥16, accounted for 6% of all admissions, of which 70% was treated at designated RTCs. Patients with an ISS≤ 15were treated at non-RTCs in 80% of cases. Application of DGU or TARN inclusion criteria, resulted in inclusion of respectively 5% and 32% of the DNTR patients. Particularly children, elderly and patients admitted at non-RTCs are left out. Moreover, 50% of ISS≥16 and 68% of the fatal cases did not meet DGU inclusion criteria Conclusion: The DNTR has evolved into a comprehensive well-structured nationwide population-based trauma register. With 80,000 inclusions annually, the DNTR has become one of the largest trauma databases in Europe The registries strength lies in the broad inclusion criteria which enables studies on the burden of injury and the quality and efficiency of the entire trauma care system, encompassing all trauma‐receiving hospitals

Obtaining person-related information from employees with chronic health problems: a focus group study

Purpose: The objective of this focus group study is to assess how occupational physicians (OPs) and insurance physicians (IPs) can best obtain information concerning person-related factors from employees. The research question was: what is the most effective way for OPs and IPs to obtain information concerning person-related factors, in the opinion of employees with chronic health problems? Methods: Three focus group discussions were conducted comprising of a total of 23 employees with work limitations due to chronic health problems. Employees discussed how physicians could best obtain information related to ten person-related cognitions and perceptions that are associated with work participation. The discussions were recorded, transcribed verbatim and analyzed through qualitative content analysis. Results: Employees indicated that information addressing person-related factors could best be obtained through discussing them directly during consultations, as opposed to the use of questionnaires or diaries. Important prerequisites to having fruitful conversations include a mutual trust between employee and physician, a sense of genuine physician interest, and the understanding of the physician of employees and their health concerns. Employees described various factors that influence these conversations, including the knowledge and communication skills of physicians, employee anxiety, and the atmosphere and time frame of the consultation. Conclusions: Information concerning the person-related factors of employees can best be obtained by discussing them during consultations. However, there has to be mutual trust, interest and understanding before employees feel comfortable to talk about these factors with a physician. OPs and IPs should consider these, and other identified factors, when asking about person-related factors during consultations

Person-related factors associated with work participation in employees with health problems: a systematic review

Purpose: The objective of this systematic review was to explore and provide systematically assessed information about the association between person-related factors and work participation of people with health problems. The research question was: what is the association between selected person-related factors and work participation of workers with health problems? Methods: A systematic review was carried out in PubMed and PsycINFO to search for original papers published between January 2007 and February 2017. The risk of bias of the studies included was assessed using quality assessment tools from the Joanna Briggs Institute. The quality of evidence was assessed using the GRADE framework for prognostic studies. Results: In total, 113 studies were included, all of which addressed the association between person-related factors and work participation. The factors positively associated with work participation were positive expectations regarding recovery or return to work, optimism, self-efficacy, motivation, feelings of control, and perceived health. The factors negatively associated with work participation were fear-avoidance beliefs, perceived work-relatedness of the health problem, and catastrophizing. Different coping strategies had a negative or a positive relationship with work participation. Conclusions: The results of this review provide more insight into the associations between different cognitions and perceptions and work participation. The results of this study suggest that person-related factors should be considered by occupational- and insurance physicians when they diagnose, evaluate or provide treatment to employees. Further research is required to determine how these physicians could obtain and apply such information and whether its application leads to a better quality of care

Training on involving cognitions and perceptions in the occupational health management and work disability assessment of workers: development and evaluation

Background: In order to improve work participation of workers with a chronic disease, it is important for occupational health professionals (OHPs) to focus on those factors that can influence work participation. Cognitions and perceptions, such as recovery expectations and self-efficacy, are examples of these factors that can influence work participation. However, no training program is available for OHPs on how to involve cognitions and perceptions during their practice. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop a training program for OHPs on how to involve cognitions and perceptions in the occupational health management and work disability assessment of workers with a chronic disease. In addition, to evaluate the OHPs’ satisfaction with the training and the feasibility of the training and learned skills. Methods: The training program was developed using information from previously conducted studies regarding cognitions and perceptions in relation to work participation. Satisfaction with the training by OHPs was evaluated by means of a questionnaire. A smaller group of OHPs were interviewed three to six months after the training to evaluate the feasibility of the training and learned skills. Results: The 4.5-h training program consisted of four parts concerning: 1) cognitions and perceptions associated with work participation, 2) how to obtain information on them, 3) the course of the conversation on these factors, and 4) intervening on these factors. Eight training sessions were conducted with 57 OHPs, of whom 54 evaluated the training. Participants were very satisfied (score 8.5 on a scale from 1 to 10). The eleven interviewed participants were more aware of cognitions and perceptions during consultations and perceived the training to be feasible. However, not all participants had applied the acquired skills in their practice, partially because of a lack of time. Conclusions: OHPs are very satisfied with the training program and perceive it to be feasible. The training increases awareness of important cognitions and perceptions and may possibly help to increase work participation of workers with a chronic disease