Defining the roles and functions of occupational and environmental health nurses. Results of a national job analysis.

1. Effective occupational health nursing practice requires expertise in the occupational and environmental health sciences, knowledge of principles of business and management, and an understanding of regulatory processes. 2. Certification is an effective mechanism for occupational health nurses to demonstrate their mastery of knowledge. The validity of the certification examination is established through the completion of a job analysis, a systematic process that provides a means to describe the various elements of a job including the duties and tasks, responsibilities, worker characteristics, and working conditions. 3. The job analysis conducted for this study found that respondents who were Certified Occupational Health Nurses are more likely to practice in the clinician role and those who were Certified Occupational Health Nurse-Specialists were more likely to practice in the educator and management role. 4. Because of the dynamic and multidimensional nature of occupational health nursing practice, it is essential that job analyses be conducted on a regular basis to ensure the validity of the certification examination.