Advocates Laud OSHA's Nursing, Residential Care NEP, Urge Wider Health Care Enforcement

Health care worker advocates are generally praising OSHA's launch of a new National Emphasis Program (NEP) for nursing and residential care facilities, saying the program is a needed step to address issues such as ergonomics and workplace violence, but also lodging persistent concerns that the agency has not reached more broadly into the health care sector. Industry officials, however, are concerned that OSHA is using the directive to tackle issues for which there are no specific standards. OSHA unveiled the NEP directive last week, several months after revealing it was under development. Some