School of Public Health

SPH doctoral student receives national workplace safety award

May 16, 2012 • Uncategorized

At the recent American Association of Occupational Health Nurses conference in Nashville, Tennessee, SPH doctoral candidate Joyce Hood, MPH, RN, COHN-S, was presented with the national UL PureSafety Workplace Health and Safety Stewardship Award, recognizing her work in occupational and environmental health nursing and her dedication to “creating a culture of health and safety in the workplace.” According to conference leaders presenting the honor, this award acknowledges “an unsung hero who exemplifies the mission of UL PureSafety, which is to protect and promote the well-being of workers, ensure organizational compliance and peace of mind, and drive measurable business improvement.”

Hood, a student in the Doctor in Public Health (DrPH) Practice program who also received her Master of Public Health (MPH) degree from the SPH, is director of Occupational Health Services for Cook Children’s Health Care System – Texas. She has served in this position since 2001.

Her influenza vaccine campaign work has been recognized on the “Vaccine Honor Roll” by the Immunization Action Coalition and also for several years by The Joint Commission, and Hood was named as a “Healthcare Hero” in 2009 by the Fort Worth Business Press. She received the “New Investigator” research grant award from the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses Foundation in 2011, and the School of Public Health’s DrPH Practice “Rising Star Award” in 2010.

She has provided numerous invited speaker presentations to various local, state and national organizations on topics ranging from loss control and injury prevention to stress, the flu and immunizations, infection control, occupational health and safety, and industrial hygiene. She is also the author or co-author of several peer-reviewed papers on workplace health and safety, occupational health nursing, influenza vaccination best practices, OSHA record-keeping for hospital employee health nurses and other health-related topics, and is a contributing author to the book Hazard Control in Hospitals, Nursing Homes and Universities, published by the American Society of Safety Engineers, 2010.