COHN(C) key terms

A specialty practice that promotes and protects the health of workers through assessment, prevention, surveillance, and care delivered in or related to the workplace setting.

The legally defined boundaries of what a nurse may do, based on licensure, education, competence, and state or provincial nurse practice acts.

The level and type of care a reasonably prudent nurse with similar training would provide in comparable circumstances, used to judge professional conduct.

Failure to meet the accepted standard of care, causing harm, established through duty, breach, causation, and damages in a legal claim.

The ethical and legal obligation to protect worker health information from unauthorized disclosure, subject to limited exceptions such as imminent danger or legally required reporting.

A privacy principle limiting release of a worker's medical information to those with a legitimate, job-related reason, excluding unrelated details from managers and coworkers.

Voluntary agreement to a health procedure or screening after receiving understandable information about purpose, risks, benefits, and alternatives, documented before the activity begins.

Timely, objective, and complete recording of assessments, interventions, exposures, and communications that supports continuity of care and provides legal evidence of nursing actions.

Assigning a specific nursing task to another competent person while the nurse retains accountability for appropriate selection, instruction, supervision, and evaluation of the outcome.

A systematic process of recognizing biological, chemical, physical, ergonomic, and psychosocial agents or conditions in the workplace that could harm workers.

Measuring or estimating the intensity, frequency, and duration of worker contact with a hazard, often through sampling, observation, and exposure records.

A ranked approach to reducing risk, from most to least effective: elimination, substitution, engineering controls, administrative controls, and personal protective equipment.

Devices such as gloves, respirators, and eye protection worn by workers to reduce exposure, used as a last line of defense after other controls.

A procedure verifying that a tight-fitting respirator seals to a worker's face, conducted before initial use and periodically or when facial changes occur.

A regulatory maximum airborne concentration of a substance to which most workers may be exposed over a specified time period, such as an eight-hour shift.

A nonregulatory occupational exposure guideline published by a scientific committee, representing airborne concentrations believed safe for most workers over a working lifetime.

Testing blood, urine, or breath to measure a worker's internal dose of a substance or its metabolite, reflecting total exposure from all routes.

Ongoing, systematic collection and review of worker health data, such as screening results and exposure records, to detect work-related disease early and guide prevention.

Testing asymptomatic workers to detect early signs of work-related conditions, such as hearing tests or lung function tests, with results linked to preventive action.

Measurement of hearing thresholds by frequency to detect noise-induced hearing loss, typically done at baseline and annually with comparison to prior results.

A defined average worsening of hearing thresholds compared with baseline, triggering notification, follow-up, and review of noise controls and hearing protection use.

A set of workplace measures including noise monitoring, audiometric testing, hearing protection, training, and recordkeeping required where noise exposure reaches a specified level.

A clinician's determination that a worker can safely perform a task or wear protective equipment, such as a respirator, given current health status and job demands.

An individualized clinical assessment of whether a worker can perform essential job functions safely, focusing on functional capacity rather than diagnosis.

A structured assessment of a worker's physical abilities, such as lifting, standing, and gripping, compared with the demands of a specific job.

A systematic description of a position's tasks, physical demands, tools, and environment, used to match workers to jobs and design accommodations or return-to-work plans.

The fundamental duties of a position that must be performed, with or without reasonable accommodation, distinguished from marginal or incidental tasks.

A modification to a job, schedule, equipment, or work environment that enables a qualified worker with a disability to perform essential functions without undue hardship.

A coordinated employer process offering modified or transitional duties, gradually increasing demands, to help injured or ill workers resume productive employment safely.

Temporary, modified work assignments that accommodate current functional limits while a worker recovers, typically with defined review dates and progression criteria.

A collaborative process of assessing, planning, coordinating, and evaluating services and resources to meet an injured worker's needs and achieve agreed outcomes.

A no-fault insurance system providing medical care, wage replacement, and disability benefits to workers injured or made ill by work, generally barring suits against employers.

Legal obligations to create and retain records of work-related injuries, illnesses, exposures, and training for specified periods, with formats and timelines set by regulation.

Actions taken before disease or injury occurs, such as eliminating hazards, immunizing workers, and providing education, to reduce incidence in the workforce.

Early detection and prompt intervention for workers with preclinical or early disease, such as screening programs and exposure surveillance, to limit progression and disability.

Planned activities and supportive environments that help workers improve and maintain health, such as physical activity, nutrition, sleep, and stress-management programs.

A questionnaire-based tool that estimates a worker's risk for disease from lifestyle and personal factors and provides individualized feedback to guide health goals.

A collaborative, goal-oriented counseling style that explores a worker's own reasons for change and strengthens confidence, rather than directing or persuading.

A structured, worker-centered partnership using goal setting, education, and follow-up to support sustained behavior change and self-management of health conditions.

A written document specifying roles, alarms, evacuation routes, assembly points, and communication methods for responding to workplace emergencies.

A planned rehearsal of emergency procedures that tests response times, roles, and equipment, followed by a debrief to identify and correct gaps.

Rapid sorting of casualties by severity of injury and likelihood of benefit from care, to allocate limited resources during an emergency or mass-casualty event.

A standardized, scalable management structure with defined roles and common terminology used to coordinate response across agencies during emergencies.

A structured debrief after an exercise or real event that examines what happened, what worked, and what should change, producing documented improvement actions.

A systematic method for tracing an adverse event or near miss back to underlying system failures, so that corrective actions address causes rather than blame individuals.

Continuous, data-driven efforts using defined measures, planned changes, and remeasurement to improve the safety, effectiveness, and efficiency of occupational health services.

Comparing an organization's performance measures, such as injury rates or program participation, with internal targets or external peers to identify improvement opportunities.

The number of new cases of injury or illness in a population during a defined period, often expressed per 100 or 200,000 hours worked for comparison.

A structured assessment of whether an occupational health program met its objectives, reached intended workers, and delivered value relative to its costs.