Assessing the impact of health and safety training: Increased behavioral change and organizational performance

Abstract

BackgroundAnnual health and safety refresher training is mandated for workers in a number of employment sectors and also is used to maintain and enhance skills when not legally required.MethodsOne year following training, hazardous waste worker training participants were asked if the training had been applied at their work or in the community, corresponding to Kirkpatrick levels of training evaluation. Likely response themes were drafted by the authors using qualitative data coding.ResultsOf the 1,726 refresher participants, 1,094 (63%) provided an entry. Eight theme categories were adapted from the originals, spanning the activities trainees reported as applications of their training: events, actions, awareness, emergency response, equipment, planning and standard operating procedures, training, and use of written resources.ConclusionsAsking participants to reflect on how training has been applied provides an opportunity to describe workplace changes made during the past year. Participants documented that training resulted in actions to protect them from hazardous exposures. Specific events where training was used and where actions were taken to improve health and safety represent Kirkpatrick Levels III and IV applications of training. Collecting similar data may be useful to others wishing to identify impacts of training and can be integrated into routine program assessment.

Introduction to the Special Issue: Opioids and the Workplace - Risk Factors and Solutions

“…Worker training using participatory training techniques facilitated by peer trainers is recognized as a key intervention in effective workplace safety and health programs. 30,31 This is addressed in several articles in this special issue. In “Promoting Opioid Awareness Through a Union-Based Peer Training Model,” Roelofs et al 32 describe an opioid awareness union-based peer training model implemented in collaboration with union locals of the Ironworkers’ and Teamsters, and a state-wide nurses’ union, along with an evaluation of the impact of the training program.…”

“…Worker training using participatory training techniques facilitated by peer trainers is recognized as a key intervention in effective workplace safety and health programs. 30,31 This is addressed in several articles in this special issue. In "Promoting Opioid Awareness Through a Union-Based Peer Training Model," Roelofs et al 32 In "Opioids and the Workplace Prevention and Response Awareness Training: Mixed Methods Follow Up Evaluation," Persaud et al 33 describe and evaluate a National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Worker Training Program (NIEHS WTP) pilot to train workers and employers about the extent of the opioid crisis, its impact on workers and work sites, that OUD is a brain disease and not a "moral failing," the impact of stigma, and preventive methods.…”

Supervisor Training

“…Under certain circumstances when cases of impairment are infrequent, supervisors will be challenged to maintain their competence and confidence in impairment recognition. In this study, some participants were amenable to taking a refresher course on impairment recognition, and there is some evidence that repeated safety training is associated with greater training transfer 58 …”

“…In this study, some participants were amenable to taking a refresher course on impairment recognition, and there is some evidence that repeated safety training is associated with greater training transfer. 58 The study findings should be interpreted with a number of methodological limitations in mind. We used a nonprobability sampling approach to recruit participants into the study, which potentially introduced some measure of selection bias and, thus, limited external validity.…”

Assessing Risks Awareness in Operating Rooms among Post-Graduate Students: A Pilot Study

“…Workers' risk awareness is the first step in ensuring workplace safety and health [4]. Hence, risk perception and active worker participation in the planning, execution, and evaluation of actual intervention techniques are of great importance [5,6].…”