Employee-Health Books

Almost every week I open this book looking for information, ideas or just trying to get a better feel for a worksite programming model or concept. The three editions of this book have helped our field move forward by giving academics and practitioners an excellent one book source for what is best practices in worksite health promotion.

If you are a seasoned health promotion professional you already have this book and like me use it weekly. If you are new in the field and did not use this book in your undergraduate or graduate studies - you need to buy it for it will become a true resource for ensuring you become a better worksite programmer.

When you look at the contributing editors of this book you realize the expertise and experience you will be tapping into - and it's worth every penny you have to spend. This past week I was working on moving people away from the "Biggest Loser" concept in weight loss and immediately went to several chapters that gave me a starting point for designing a "behavior changed" focused weight management program. As a worksite program manager for almost 30 years it is the design and delivery of programming that helps initiate and support individual behavior change that is my constant challenge. O'Donnell's book is one of the books I keep directly over my computer - almost eye level where I can easily get at it without missing a step.

If you want to really know what goes on at the hospital, read this book. You will never go into a hospital by yourself again. Mister Medved talked to a lot of hospital people and they told him how they live every day, what they think and what they do. I was very surprised. I think you will be, too. Get this book before you have to visit someone you love in the hospital. Get it before you have to go. You'll be glad you did.

The insights in this book are simply phenomenal. If you take care of patients anywhere in healthcare, this book will make your life so much easier. If you are a patient, you will wish your doctors and nurses had read this book! (Despite the name, no known relation!)

Don't we all want to figure out our purpose? Reading this book has brought me new understanding about myself and my career. I have always taken my "purpose" for granted. Making Purpose Work explains things that I thought I already knew. By doing so it exposes various dimensions of ourselves and organizations that contribute to our overall sense of wellness. This book will be beneficial to anyone who reads it, no matter where your place is in an organization. It helps you to better understand your situation and ultimately your purpose there in.

Dr. Don Mayes was able to represent in a excellent way the knowledge requirements for a professional management of dental care. I have read you book many times and also used it as a parameter for the development of the first commercial dental plan with capitation concept in Brazil, the second largest private health market in the world. I am looking forward reading your next and most modern edition, with a lots of new informmation about the dental plan management.

This well researched text provides a vivid depiction of the burgeoning Guatemalan maquiladora industry. It is full of first hand information and interviews of workers and fairly evaluates the costs and benefits of this new industry. A must read for any one concerned about global capitalism.

"Safety Culture in Nuclear Power Operations" is an important volume for any professional interested in safety in any tightly-coupled technological domain. The term "safety culture" came to the forefront after the Chernobyl accident: today no analysis of safety, especially in a High Reliability Organization (HRO) would be possible without a consideration of the underlying safety, corporate, and regulatory cultures. Nuclear Power Plants (NPP) are perfect examples of HROs in that they are high-hazard, low-risk institutions (p. 5; see also the definitions of HROs on p. 40,) and conform well to the example definitions of safety culture throughout the book (see Schein's model on p. 7, and the excellent definition on p. 10 in particular; note also the corresponding definition of "safety system" on p.11.)

The subsection titled "The Changeableness of Safety Culture" (p. 12) explores the important topics of system complexity as the cause of accidents, and the role of management in the prevention of accidents through appropriate orientation, action, funding, etc. (p.13.) The role of time in accident chains is explored as well: most accidents occur over a very long period of time (p.20,) although the chain may only be visible retrospectively. This is a key point in my opinion, and argues very strongly for managerial involvement in, and promotion of, safety programs. Managerial importance is demonstrated in the case of the turnaround of the Palo Verde, Arizona station (p.98;) the relationship of profit versus safety culture is well defined on p. 101. The role of knowledgeable safety consultants is demonstrated in the discussion of Billie Garde and Little Harbor Consultants in the shutdown and restart of the Millstone plant (p.216.) An excellent basic guideline titled "Modeling of Organizational Factors Influencing Safety Performance" (pp. 191-192) delineates the interrelationship between accidents and organizational factors concisely. These sections should be mandatory reading for any manager in a safety-critical industry.

Most NPPs have traditionally operated in a regulation-based culture, but problematically, this type of rule-based orientation only prevents previous accidents from being repeated as it is not forward-thinking (pp.25-27). People working in NPPs are bright, competent, motivated, and professional: management must grasp that there is an important role for people to play in NPP operation within a framework of good operating practices (p. 27.) The key to this is good professional education, and understanding of potential consequences of actions, thus allowing for balanced decision making. This is not only my opinion, but is explored in depth (p.30) with knowledge-based decision making seen as being key in ambiguous and intransparent situations. Humans are best at interpretation of information in "context dependent" scenarios (p.81) and excel at "organizational recombination" (p.43) when necessary. This ability to recombine quickly into task-oriented working groups in a crisis is a marker of a positive safety culture, and is commonly seen in other HROs as well (commercial aviation, aircraft carriers, etc.) An excellent example of incident analysis with a focus on decision making in ambiguity begins on p. 159. The incident involves a confusing reactor trip related to steam safety valve functionality, gland sealing steam recovery, and feedwater control deficiencies. The incident is reviewed in great detail, and is an excellent example of the type of incident that can be analyzed and then used for training as an error-forcing context in a scenario-based simulation.

I view training as key to successful crisis management in any industry, and further view simulation and scenario-based training as most beneficial for decision making in ambiguous situations. One method of training design discussed deals with implementing "error-forcing contexts" (p.84) in scenarios. These are unusual combinations of events designed to maximize cognitive and team decision-making skills and are most useful when designed with reference to previous real-world incidents. Airlines do this in simulator training, and NPPs are learning the benefits of this approach with fewer operator errors as a result. At the time of the Three Mile Island accident there were eight NPP simulators in the US; today there are over 80. Not only has appropriate analysis been given to "symptoms versus events" in NPP operator training, but a key measure of operational excellence, the number of unplanned reactor trips, has fallen dramatically since this training has been implemented (p. 105.) Chapter 14 contains an excellent analysis of organizational learning beginning on p.244.

Safety lapses still occur in all industries, even in HROs. One important element of many failings is the role of miscommunication in incidents. This element is discussed throughout the book (please especially note pp. 153 and 175.) I was pleased this got so much attention: almost all accidents involve communication problems in one form or another.

Chapter 18 "Sharing Knowledge on Human Error Prevention" by Tetsuya Tsukada and Fumio Kotani, is a brilliant piece of work. The themes of the chapter discuss data sharing and correlation, human factors research, and training. The authors note (p. 301) that "it is important that workers have sufficient knowledge of 'the most suitable error prevention methods for different situations,'" which argues not only for excellent professional training, but also for data and incident sharing between operators, a situation where nuclear power leads aviation. This chapter underscores the importance of humans in the decision making loop, especially in situations of great ambiguity.

While the book as a whole is a notable and praiseworthy work in the field, there are several detractors. Chapter 10, by Björn Wahlstöm, while generally good, has some translation errors that make it rather difficult to read in a few places, notably on p.200 during discussion of the "synthesized variances plane." Likewise, the final chapter, "A Sign System for Safety" is sub par and sometimes borders on incomprehensible. It proposes a set of signage conventions for NPPs some of which are both convoluted and counterintuitive, although in defense of the chapter, there are some excellent points made, especially on the subject of color coding.

I recommend this book highly to any safety professional.

I have a list of about 20 books that are required reading for my sons; this book made the list. Here's why:

He makes a very good point in the book that everyone needs to hear: though I don't have any particular disrespect for professional ball players, the idea that their work involves great amounts of stres is a little far fetched to me. You strike out in the world series and next week you can open a car dealership if you haven't snorted your salary in cocaine. You make the wrong mistake in the ER (as nurse, technician, book keeper, or telephone operator...not just as physician) and somebody dies; you don't get to go open a car dealership the next week.

In spite of this fact, the model he used and the lessons he learned coaching professional skaters and ball players to a better performance works very well for nurses, and salesmen, and stay-at-home fathers and mothers, and policeman, fireman, and whatever it is you do.

I worked for 12 years in the ER and this book helped me reach the point where I could move through a very busy day and stay calm and focused with energy in reserve when I left the hospital.

I also recommend the book to my patients (now, I practice endocrinology and bariatrics). Nothing keeps you moving towards your goals better than keeping yourself honest with yourself about what you're actually doing (For example: good research shows that people greatly underestimate the amount they eat and overestimate the amount of exercise they do). I've used an adaptation of his record keeping system to help my patients drop the pounds and continue to use the record system myself even though I don't do ER medicine any more.

This book is a must for anyone in the financial services industry! I'm always looking for the most accurate tax information to provide clients. Tax Facts is that resource. Not only is the information completely accurate, it's easy to find the information I need. The book is written in a question-and-answer format so I can always locate what I need. I'm confident that I'm providing my clients with the most accurate tax related information for their financial planning needs. Also, you can't beat the price for this book. I have a lot of other publications on my shelf that cost way more than this book that don't contain half of the information as Tax Facts. This book is a must for anyone in the financial services industry!

This is an excellent book- no safety professional should be without it- Dan Petersen raises tough questions about standard safety approaches that do not work and presents research based information and methods that do work- Concepts presented will help any practionaire acheive a better understanding of safety and how to sustain results- an excellent resource-