A study of expectations of occupational health and safety officers in business establishments in the Eastern Special Development Zone on the competencies of occupational medicine physicians
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14456/dcj.2023.38Keywords:
competency, occupational medicine physician, occupational health and safety officers, Eastern Economic CorridorAbstract
This research was a cross-sectional study conducted at a given timepoint between September and November 2021. The objective was to study the expectations of competencies of occupational health and safety officers in business establishments on the competencies of occupational medicine physicians in the Eastern Special Development Zone (also known as the Eastern Economic Corridor or EEC). The study was conducted on the sample group comprised of 103 occupational health and safety officers of business establishments in the EEC area. The structural questionnaires developed by the researchers were used to survey the expectations of the occupational health and safety officers of business establishments. The efficiency indicators of questionnaires were based on item objective congruence of 0.90 and validity and reliability based on Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.95. Data were analyzed by descriptive and analytical statistics. The one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare the mean scores of expectations of business establishments on the competencies of occupational medicine physicians among varying sizes of business establishments. The research results were as follows: 1) More than 90 percent of business establishments in the EEC area provided occupational health and safety services that were in accordance with the existing laws. However, only 78.6% of business establishments provided medical examinations before returning to work and systematic storage and maintenance of medical records; 2) There is still a shortage of occupational medicine physicians in the EEC area; 3) The mean total score of expectations of competencies was 3.66+0.91. The top three highest mean expectation of competencies score were the ability to identify occupational hazards to health (3.87+0.63), to perform fitness for work and disability assessment (3.81+0.62), and to provide health promotion and education in the workplace (3.68+0.88); and 4) The mean expectation score of officers from three enterprise sizes (small medium and large) was statistically different in the health promotion and education, and occupational medicine-related research (p<0.05).
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