BCP Social Sciences & Humanities HASS 2022 Volume 18 (2022) 410 Research on Countermeasures of Occupational Health Protection for Rehabilitation Therapists under the COVID-19 Pandemic Wenhao Gao Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shandong, China 2862796430@qq.com Abstract. In China, the level of occupational health protection of medical staff is relatively low, which is prone to occupational diseases and psychological problems. Focusing on the occupational health protection of rehabilitation therapists, the paper summarizes the current situation of six aspects included epidemic prevention control measures, therapy postures, therapy rooms’ environment, doctor-patient communication skills, mental health, and basic legal guarantee. Then give three aspects of countermeasures. Keywords: Occupational health protection; Rehabilitation therapy; COVID-19. 1. Background of occupational health protection In December 2019, the first confirmed case of COVID-19 appeared in Wuhan, China, marking the beginning of China's public health service to face a huge challenge. The year 2019 is a crucial year for China to win a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. China's polity and economy are developing rapidly. The sudden outbreak of COVID-19 have hindered China's development and production, brought challenges to people's health, and affected people's lives in all respects. The Communist Party of China and the government attach great importance to this emergency public health incident, and efficiently formulated measures to deal with it. They took advantage of socialist society, and implemented strong control from top to bottom, and basically controlled the spread of the epidemic at the fastest speed. At present, the trend of the epidemic in China is overall stable, gradually decreasing, local contingency, and full-time controlled. As the national economy has recovered, residents can carry out normal occupational production and entertainment activities. The industrial chain that has been unstable or even broken during the epidemic period has been stabilized and strengthened now. In the late stage of the epidemic, employment became an urgent issue for people's livelihood. Drawing on the experience of the epidemic process from the outbreak to the basic control, the occupational health protection after employment has also become a problem that enterprises and individuals should fully consider. 2. The Significance of occupational health protection In the People's Republic of China’s 14th five year plan and Long-Range Objective Through the Year 2035, put forward to comprehensively promote the construction of healthy China, to protect people's health in the strategic position of priority development. Adhere to the policy of prevention first, further implement the healthy China action. Improve the national health promotion policy. Woven national public health fence, to provide people with full life health services. We need to build a strong public health system, and establish a stable investment mechanism for public health services. We need to improve the basic conditions for disease control, and strengthen the community-level public health system[1]. Occupational health is an important link in the prevention system. The evaluation of occupational health is of great significance to ensuring the productivity of workers, to improve the economic BCP Social Sciences & Humanities HASS 2022 Volume 18 (2022) 411 effectiveness of enterprises and maintaining social stability, and fully embodies the values of people- oriented. Various occupations have certain occupational risks, manual workers are prone to trauma their body integrity and suffer from function destruction because of joint wear and tear. Mental workers are easy to maintain the same movement for a long time, less exercise which can cause hypertension and other diseases, and even easy to cause mental illness. Occupational risk cannot be separated from both personal and environmental factors, especially for medical workers, whose working environment is the hospital, daily contact with a large number of patients. There is a risk of exposure, requiring a lot of work in a relatively dangerous environment. Among them, the rehabilitation therapists need to spend a lot of physical strength in making their patients do passive joint activities and various evaluation of patients. If they cannot operate in the correct position, and the force acts on the wrong axis, in the long run, it will lead to the deformation of musculoskeletal bones and affect the function and bring pain. Therefore, occupational health protection is the cornerstone of protecting the health of medical workers. Ensuring a healthy working status is an important factor to ensure the productivity of medical workers. We should realize that the decent work of medical staff is to ensure that medical staff to provide quality medical and health services and basic guarantee. We should realize to ensure that medical staff decent labor is an input-output benefit investment, which is a huge return on investment, and will provide health working environment and working conditions as the internal needs of hospital development and active pursuit[2]。 3. Current situation of occupational health protection for rehabilitation therapists under the COVID-19 Pandemic 3.1 Requirements for epidemic prevention and control measures According to the requirements of relevant government departments for epidemic prevention and control measures, medical staff engaged in relevant work in the hospital should wear masks to protect themselves while protecting their patients. When patients are in fever or unable to provide nucleic acid test within 48 hours. Adhere to the hospital's epidemic prevention and control measures, which require all department members according to the highest standards, strictly do a good job of attendance and personnel statistics, and do no negligence. Strictly fulfill the obligation of supervision. When the patients or practitioners are found to violate the relevant regulations, make sure the first time to report to the relevant departments, in order to protect the health and safety of themselves and others. 3.2 Posture used during the treatment According to the investigation, rehabilitation therapists have a variety of occupational diseases, with lumbar disc protrusion and tenosynovitis is the most common. The occurrence of occupational diseases directly leads to the short working time of rehabilitation therapists, which can indirectly lead to insufficient accumulation of experience and poor treatment effect, which is not conducive to the development of the profession. The direct factor of the occupational disease is the incorrect position and posture of the therapists, and the fundamental factor is that the education level is generally low for the practitioners. In terms of the quality of existing rehabilitation therapists, 83.72% are 39 or below, 95.35% have college degree or below, 83.72% are junior and no professional title, and 88.37% have been working in rehabilitation treatment for 5 years or less, which does not meet the needs of Chinese residents for rehabilitation treatment services[3]。 In the pre-entry training, therapists should master the correct treatment posture and body position is an important way to protect the safety of therapists themselves, and it is the fundamental requirement of occupational health protection for rehabilitation therapists. For the easily injured waist, BCP Social Sciences & Humanities HASS 2022 Volume 18 (2022) 412 hand and wrist, the corresponding protection plan should be elaborated in detail, such as to avoid bending over and using the lower limbs and hip force compensation, or to avoid excessive rotation of the forearm. 3.3 Treatment environment The major of rehabilitation therapy was introduced into China's teaching system in the early 1980s and began to flourish in the early 21st century. However, at present, most hospitals and even some 3A grade hospitals have not formed a sound rehabilitation system, especially for the branches such as occupational therapy and speech therapy. The rehabilitation department of many hospital is small , with large personnel, crowded and noisy environment. From the perspective of physiological hygiene, the air quality is poor and easily infects lung diseases or viruses. From the perspective of psychological hygiene, excessive auditory and visual stimulation in dense places leads to excessive stress. At present, the main part of the system is still hospital rehabilitation. The recent rise of community-based rehabilitation from southern China is a new mode of adjusting the therapy environment. Rehabilitation into the community can relieve the pressure of the hospital, improve the environment of rehabilitation treatment, and be conducive to the occupational health protection of therapists. 3.4 Doctor-patient communication skills Mastering communication skills is an effective means to avoid violent conflicts and an important defense to maintain the personal safety of therapists. At present, doctor-patient communication has become a required course for most medical colleges and universities in China. Through systematic learning of doctor-patient communication knowledge, medical students can provide them with ideas to solve doctor-patient conflicts and master basic methods to mediate disputes. In the analysis of the main influencing factors of communication barriers, doctors and patients reached a certain consensus, 63% of doctors and 62% of patients respectively thought that "doctors are busy with time" is the main medical factor of communication barriers. 57% of doctors and 56% of patients think that "patients do not understand knowledge" is the main patient factor of communication barriers[4]。 Rehabilitation therapists serve a wide variety of subjects. In most parts of China, rehabilitation therapy is mainly targeted for middle-aged and elderly people with better economic conditions. For this part of the population, the more common feature is that having a high level of knowledge, and has a certain social status, who often in the rehabilitation training accompanied by relatives. Such patients can master certain rehabilitation knowledge, but they are not very professional, which may question the therapists, thus causing both of their negative emotions between the therapist and the patients themselves. If the rehabilitation therapists cannot properly handle the doctor-patient relationship and communicate effectively, it may lead to the breakdown of the treatment relationship or even violent conflicts. From 2009 to 2018, there were 295 serious violent medical injuries in China's medical sector, with 362 medical workers injured and as many as 24 people died. According to the survey, there are 11 million medical care workers in mainland China, but the exposure rate of violent medical injuries is 42 percent to 83 percent[5]. In the rehabilitation department, the proportion is relatively small than the surgery department, but prevention should still be the priority. 3.5 Mental health A study[6] suggests that connotation of the difference of doctors' professional psychological ability is included three parts: the cognitive differences between different gender groups on doctors' professional psychological ability among different gender groups, the cognitive differences between doctor groups and patient groups, and the cognitive differences between doctors' professional psychological ability among different age groups. Rehabilitation therapy is a job that requires physical strength and skill, requiring not only strength and endurance, but also a lot of experience and BCP Social Sciences & Humanities HASS 2022 Volume 18 (2022) 413 knowledge accumulation. If you can not invest enough efforts to the work, and can not innovate , but just stay in the repetitive work, it is easy to produce job burnout as well as occupational diseases. Unlike doctors, in China, rehabilitation therapists are medical and health technicians in their occupational classification. Compared with doctors, rehabilitation therapists are usually poorly paid, although their work is regular but tired. Some rehabilitation therapists have an unhealthy, negative psychological state, no longer like their own career, which will affect the effect of work. Ensuring the mental health of therapists is an important factor in contributing to the longevity of the industry. It can make rehabilitation therapists continue to engage in relevant work, on the basis of ensuring physiological health, can invest in the spirit of love and exploration in the work, can effectively promote the overall development of the industry. Experienced therapists can help young therapists to fully master their professional skills, which can improve the overall work efficiency and level of the rehabilitation department. 3.6 Basic legal guarantees According to the Outline of the plan of "Healthy China 2030" , a general survey of basic occupational-disease hazards should be carried out and targeted health intervention measures should be improved. We should further improve the occupational safety and health standard system, and establish and improve the key occupational disease monitoring and occupational-disease-inductive factors monitoring, reporting and management network[7]。 According to the Law of the People's Republic of China on Basic Medical and Health care and Health Promotion, the whole society should care for and respect medical and health personnel, maintain a good and safe medical and health service order, and jointly build a harmonious doctor- patient relationship. The personal safety and dignity of medical and health personnel shall not be infringed upon, and their legitimate rights and interests shall be protected by law. Any organization or individual is prohibited to threaten or endanger the personal safety of medical and health personnel and infringe upon their personal dignity. The state shall take measures to ensure the practice environment for medical and health personnel[8]. Current occupational health law is formulated on the basis of the constitution of the People's Republic of China, including the labor law of the People's Republic of China, the law of the law of the People's Republic of China on occupational diseases prevention, etc. China in the field of occupational health has initially built into a "constitution-law- administrative regulations / department rules-standard" legal framework system[9]。 The complete legal system has comprehensively guaranteed the physical and mental health of all medical staff, including rehabilitation therapists, improved the social status of medical staff, and enhanced the strength of the medical service system, fully reflecting China's people-oriented thought and the superiority of the socialist system. 4. Occupational health protection measures for rehabilitation therapists 4.1 Physiological and health protection First of all, medical staff, including therapists, should improve their awareness of occupational health protection, and should conduct corresponding occupational health protection training before the formal work. They should master complete self-protection skills, and appropriate communication skills. Therapists should master the correct treatment gestures, purchase adjustable treatment seats, and wear comfortable and convenient treatment clothing. Female therapists should be careful not to wear over-exposed clothes or skirts, and should always keep a safe distance during contact with patients, be vigilant and do not get too close with patients to prevent sexual harassment by male patients. The environment should be kept clean and tidy, and the ground is flat and rough. Do not let the wires cross the corridor or the treatment room. Do not stack objects to a dangerous height. Always pay attention to factors that may risk, especially objects with sharp edges. Hospitals shall follow the BCP Social Sciences & Humanities HASS 2022 Volume 18 (2022) 414 5S management rules, named SEIRI, SEITON, SEISO, SEIKETSU, and SHITSUKE. Usually open the Windows for ventilation. Always abide by the epidemic prevention and control requirements, and do not leave the city where you stay now unless necessary. Conduct nucleic acid tests on time, and report your own health situation consciously. If you get a fever, diarrhea and other conditions, then self-isolation. 4.2 Mental health protection Medical staff are generally under great work pressure, and they should master the methods to regulate their mental health, such as exercise, communication and self-encouragement. Hospitals should improve the mental health protection mechanism, be able to pay attention to the mental health of medical staff, and can formulate methods in time to deal with the psychological changes of medical staff. If conditions permit, psychological counselors can be set up in every department to help the therapists to relieve the pressure in time, and to improve the work motivation and work efficiency of the therapists. The therapist should properly arrange the treatment plan, leave themselves with enough time to rest, adjust the state, and relax the body. 4.3 Social and legal support Professor Zhang Min, in making systematic suggestions and key proposals to relevant organizations and institutions at home and abroad, pointed out ten policies that have been adopted or the countermeasures or successfully implemented in pilot hospitals[10]. It proposes that the occupational health rights and occupational health protection principles as workers should be included in the Basic Medical and Health Law; China's medical services strategic goal of 2020 should cover medical workers; calls for the establishment of occupational health protection demonstration medical institutions. These ten points make it clear that there is still room for improvement in occupational health protection. 5. Summary From the three aspects of physical health, mental health and policy support, improving the occupational health level of medical staff has a strong role in promoting the improvement of China's medical system. At the present stage, from hospitals to individuals, the attention to occupational health protection is still insufficient, and the public efforts of various social forces are needed to promote the rapid development of China's health services. Only by ensuring occupational health and occupational safety can we ensure the stable improvement of productivity and thus make the stable development of the whole industry. References [1] The Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan for the National Economic and Social Development of the People's Republic of China and the 2035 Vision Plan for the Economic and Social Development (2021- 03-13)http://www.gov.cn/xinwen /2021-03/13/content_5592681.htm [2] Zhang Min, Xu Lihui, Liu Tuo, Du Xieyi, Li Qi, Chen Liang, Shi Chunlan. Self-discipline mode of hospital systematic occupational health protection: the advocacy and practice to protect the health of medical staff [J].Nursing Management in China, 2018,18 (02): 145-149. [3] Yin Renlong, Zhang Jun, Chen Zhangbing.Current situation and management countermeasures of rehabilitation therapists in the context of healthy China [J]. The Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine Management, 2021,29(10):124-126. DOI:10.16690/j.cnki.1007-9203.2021.10.056. [4] Liu Fangfang, Li Jing, Chen Zhibin.Meta-analysis of both doctor-patient cognition of doctor-patient communication [J]. Chinese Geriatric Health Medicine, 2022,20 (01): 13-16. [5] Phillips J P. Workplace Violence against Health Care Workers in the United States. N Engl J Med, 2016, 374(17): 1661-1669 http://www.gov.cn/xinwen/2021-03/13/ BCP Social Sciences & Humanities HASS 2022 Volume 18 (2022) 415 [6] Pu Yueheng, Zhu Junlong, Zhu Kun, Luo Wenping. Investigation on doctors' professional psychological personality and psychological ability oriented by job competence [J]. Contemporary Medicine, 2021,27 (27): 186-189. [7] Xinhua News Agency.The CPC Central Committee and The State Council have issued the Outline of the "Healthy China 2030" Plan [EB / OL].(2016 10 25)[2019 11 28].http://www.gov.cn/xinwen/2016 10/25/content_ 5124174.htm [8] The Basic Medical Care and Health Promotion Law of the People's Republic of China (2019, December28) http://www.npc.gov.cn/npc/c30834/201912/15b7b1cfda 374666a2d4c43d1e15457c.shtml [9] Week standard. Analysis of Chinese Occupational Health Laws and Regulations System [J]. Occupational Health and Emergency Rescue, 2016,34 (2): 170-173. [10] Zhang Min, Xu Lihui, Liu Tuo, Li Qi, Chen Liang, Shi Chunlan. Research on Occupational Health Protection System for Medical Staff in China [J]. China safety Production Science and Technology, 2018,14 (05): 51-60. http://www.npc.gov.cn/npc/c30834/201912/ 1. Background of occupational health protection 2. The Significance of occupational health protection 3. Current situation of occupational health protection for rehabilitation therapists under the COVID-19 Pandemic 3.1 Requirements for epidemic prevention and control measures 3.2 Posture used during the treatment 3.3 Treatment environment 3.4 Doctor-patient communication skills 3.5 Mental health 3.6 Basic legal guarantees 4. Occupational health protection measures for rehabilitation therapists 4.1 Physiological and health protection 4.2 Mental health protection 4.3 Social and legal support 5. Summary References