Our research promotes practices, products, and policies that address occupational safety, environmental safety, and patient safety in both home care and hospitals.

WHAT'S NEW

• On May 23, 2018 Safe Home Care Project Principal Investigator Margaret Quinn, Sc.D. CIH, received the Alice Hamilton Award at the annual meeting of the American Industrial Hygiene Association. The award recognizes a woman who has made outstanding contributions to the field of occupational and environmental hygiene. Alice Hamilton Award (pdf)
• During the week of April 29 - May 6, 2018 Margaret Quinn and Pia Markkanen attended the Congress of the International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH) in Dublin, Ireland. They shared current research of the Safe Home Care Project. Dr. Quinn presented a keynote address and Dr. Markkanen presented a poster on Cleaning and Disinfection in Home Healthcare (pdf).
• On April 6, 2018 the Zuckerberg College of Health Sciences, Center for Gerontology Research and Partnerships (GCRP) hosted the 4th Annual Healthy Aging, Living Well Forum. Safe Home Care Project researchers Dr. Margaret Quinn and Dr. Pia Markkanen were featured presenters. The event archive including individual presentations is available at the GCRP website.
• On March 5, 2018 several major news sites ran a story on emerging research that points to long-term lung health effects from occupational exposure to cleaning products among women. An interview with Safe Home Care Principal Investigator Dr. Margaret Quinn , was featured in the article."Cleaning products tied to faster lung function decline in women"
• On February 5, 2018 Safe Home Care Project Principal Investigator Dr. Margaret Quinn, presented a webinar about the project’s work as part of the NORA Interdisciplinary Seminar Series for the North Carolina Occupational Safety and Health Education and Research Center. View a recording of the webinar: “Safe Home Care Project: Improving the Health and Safety of Home Care Aides Through Mixed-Methods Research”

NEWSLETTERS

Read our Summer 2018 newsletter (pdf) to find out what's new in the project.

Previous newsletters:

• Winter 2017 / 2018 (pdf)
• Summer 2017 (pdf)

You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view any pdf files. It can be downloaded for free from the Adobe website.

Publicly Available Research

Many of the Safe Home Care Project's peer-reviewed articles are available to the public via open access (can be read, downloaded, and shared at no cost). Here are some of the most recent open access publications:

• Cleaning and disinfection in home care: A comparison of 2 commercial products with potentially different consequences for respiratory health - American Journal of Infection Control in April 2018.
• Risk of Sharps Injuries to Home Care Nurses and Aides: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis - Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine in November 2017.
• Safety Risks Among Home Infusion Nurses and Other Home Health Care Providers - Journal of Infusion Nursing in July/August 2017.
• Risk of sharps injuries among home care aides: Results of the Safe Home Care survey - American Journal of Infection Control in April 2017.
• Occupational health of home care aides: results of the safe home care survey - Occupational and Environmental Medicine in April 2016.