Successful Strategies for Occupational Health and Safety in Small and Medium Enterprises: Insights for a Sustainable Return to Work.
Iuliana Nastasia, Romain Rives
PMID 39616561WHAT IT FOUND
Scoping review identified four OHS strategies for SMEs: specific info dissemination, short training, participatory approaches, and context adaptation.
Stakeholders suggest these could support return to work, but no evidence shows they improve disability management outcomes.
Key findings
01Four main strategies were identified for successful OHS management in SMEs: disseminating information, transmitting knowledge/skills, using participatory/collaborative approaches, and considering organizational context.
02Stakeholders consulted noted that while these OHS strategies have potential applicability to disability management and sustainable return to work, this link was based on their experience rather than evidence from the reviewed studies.
03The review found that disability management and sustainable return to work are not currently encompassed among the main OHS strategies in SME literature, which focuses primarily on injury prevention.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The review did not assess the quality of the included studies, so the 'successful' strategies are based on authors' claims rather than rigorous evidence. The stakeholder consultation was limited to Quebec, restricting the generalizability of the suggestions for applying these strategies to return to work. The connection between OHS strategies and disability management/return to work is theoretical and based on stakeholder opinion, not empirical evidence from the reviewed studies. The literature reviewed focused primarily on injury prevention, with little attention to complex topics like sustainable return to work.
Declared interests
Funded by the Institut de recherché Robert-Sauvé en santé et en sécurité du travail (IRSST), Canada. No other conflicts of interest were declared.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the identified OHS strategies as evidence-based interventions for improving return to work outcomes. The review explicitly states that the link between these strategies and disability management is based on stakeholder experience, not on evidence from the studies reviewed, and that the findings should not be used to recommend policies or practices.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →