Personal care assistants and blood exposure in the home environment: focus group findings

Exposure to blood and bodily fluids continues to be an important and life-threatening risk facing health care workers employed in traditional health care workplaces. Little is known about how blood exposure risk impacts personal care assistants (PCAs) who provide care in homes.

A National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)-funded community based participatory research project between Service Employees International Union (SEIU), PCAs, and university-based researchers was conducted to increase the understanding of the risk of exposure to blood among PCAs.

Six focus groups were conducted to assess the relationship between the context of work, blood exposure, and use of available hazard controls in home care workplaces.

Findings indicate that PCAs are exposed to blood even though they do not provide health care or treatment. Training and barrier protection may be available, but the quality of each was highly variable if available.

Focus group findings will be used to implement a union-based participatory primary prevention intervention for the reduction of blood exposure among PCAs.