Pre-employment screening among health care workers—ethical issues

Abstract

Occupational health practitioners deal with the questions of confidentiality, relation between the right to work and the right to health, between individual freedom and the risks other can run. An audit of pre-employment health assessment of health care workers, in the United Kingdom and in France, discussed the efficiency of pre-employment screening. Screening tests and medical examinations should not be used as a pretext to avoid implementing effective preventive measures. The pre-employment examination has mostly to be used for education of the future employees and for collection of baseline data. Appropriate procedures such as developing preventive policies, health promotion, and control of hazards in the work environment are efficient for the promotion of equal employment rights for women, older workers, or people with disabilities. © 2001 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.