The content and documentation of health check-ups in occupational health care

The purpose of this study was to describe the content and structure of documentation of health check-ups in occupational health care. A two phase study with the Delphi-group technique was used. Participants were a purposive sample of 20 occupational health nurses. Measurements: Semi structured interviews were conducted and a questionnaire for second round which was based on the interviews. Principally the occupational health nurses did not have a clear uniform opinion of the content areas of the health check-ups. It was noticeable that counseling was not mentioned as a content area of the health check up. Occupational health nurses considered the present documentation system extremely heterogeneous. The most important issue to be improved is the documentation of the health plan and summary. A structured body of documentation with the combination of free text would clarify the content of documentation of health check-ups in occupational health care. Also it would ease the evaluating of the effectiveness of the care given.