Effects of The Occupational Health and Safety Officers Training Program on Knowledge of Risk factors and Skills, Thungsong Hospital, Nakhon Si Thammarat Province

Abstract

Background: The occupational health risk assessment of Thungsong Hospital’s employees in the year 2022 showed that the most three common health hazards affecting their quality of work were poor lighting, poor ergonomics at work, and the exposure to excessive and prolonged levels of noise, respectively. The occupational health and safety management system to provide better protection for healthcare workers of Thungsong Hospital has not been organized formerly, this study aimed to develop and evaluate the occupational training program to promote their knowledge and skill relating to risk factors.

Objective: To study the effects of the occupational health and safety officers training program on knowledge of risk factors and skills among healthcare workers in Thungsong Hospital.

Materials and Methods: This study was a quasi-experiment research with one group pre-posttest design. The sample were 42 healthcare workers who takes up every session of the training program. The research instruments comprised of the questionnaires measuring knowledge of risk factors and skills which were validated by 3 experts. The CVI of this questionnaire was 1, and the reliability Index was 0.76 respectively. Data were analyzed by SPSS program and descriptive statistics (percentage, mean, standard deviation) was performed. Dependent or Paired samples t-test was employed to test the difference between pre-posttest scores. A statistic significance was set at 0.05.

Result: Healthcare workers had significantly higher mean scores from the knowledge of risk factors and skills measurement after completion the occupational and safety training program (p<0.01).

Conclusion:  The research findings indicate that this program can apply in enhancing the knowledge of risk factors and skills among occupational health and safety officers. Healthcare workers who have sufficient knowledge of risk factors and skills will be able to identify potential hazards in the workplace with more precisely.