Challenges of Implementing an Online Survey for Assessing the Occupational Risk for Pregnant School Teachers in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

The Institute of Teachers‘ Health at the University Medical Center of the Johannes-Gutenberg University Mainz, is responsible for the occupational-medical care of public school teachers in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. In line with the Maternity Protection Act, the employer (here state ministry of education) has to assess the potential workplace risks of a pregnant teacher after the pregnancy has been announced.

In practice, the school principal has to report the pregnancy as well as information on gestational age, status of immunity, potential risks at workplace and personal data to the Institute of Teachers‘ Health . Based on this information the occupational physicians at the Institute of Teachers‘ Health evaluate the occupational risk for the pregnant teacher. In case of existing unavoidable occupational risk factors, a (temporal) employment ban will be recommended to the teacher’s employer.

Besides the individual occupational risk assessment, the anonymized version of the data on immunity, work place factors and gestation are used for research purposes.

Currently about 130 cases of pregnant teachers per month are reported to the Institute of Teachers‘ Health via an online survey process. The development of the online survey process had been challenged by privacy questions because both personal data and health data are required. As a solution, two downstream processes were implemented to separate personal from health data. The first process conducts information on gestation, immunity and workplace factors by an online survey. The second process is an independant IT solution which conducts the personal data of the pregnant teacher. Only at the Institute of Teachers‘ Health the data is combined by an individual code.

Focus of the presentation is to report the challenges of developing the process of risk assessment for pregnant school teachers in Germany, the technical online solution and the feedback the Institute of Teachers‘ Health gets of its users.