PERCEPTIONS OF HEALTH PERSONNEL ABOUT WORK SAFETY AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH OCCUPATIONAL INJURIES

Abstract

Although hospital work environment is one of the most hazardous place to work, there are relatively little studies focused on heath personnel’s’ perceptions about workplace safety. This study investigated perceptions of health personnel about work safety at a university hospital and its relationship with occupational injuries. Questionnaire included demographics, exposure to an occupational injury, occupational safety scale for health personnel and universal precautions compliance scale. The lowest scores for the hospital safety were given for the dimensions measuring “occupational diseases and complaints” and “management support and approaches”. Gender, unsafe behaviours, and long working hours affected exposure to an occupational injury. Healthcare workers who experienced an occupational injury stated lower safety scores for the dimension “management support and approaches”. Hospital administrations should give much more attention to safety regulations in order to improve safety and health in hospitals. This study confirms the importance of management support (by arranging working hours, giving priority to training activities on safety practices and identifying problematic dimensions for safety) to come over occupational injuries.