• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.105-111
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• 2013

This study aimed to identify the recognition of fire risks on their field operations among firefighters and contribute to setting up safety measures accordingly. A self-administered questionnaire were used to evaluate their recognition of job risks. About 93.4% of respondents answered they have exposed to job risks and 73.4% answered that they had high safety awareness. Our study showed that the lower service years and ranks the fire officers had, the lower relevance in statistics their awareness of the risk of the field operations and safety concerns had. The vulnerable group is those aged 20 to 39, with under 10 years of service, at a lower rank of senior fire sergeant. The study suggests coming up with the measures to motivate the officers to perform safe operations by improving their safety awareness.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.345-352
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• 2015

Background: Goal-oriented communication of risk of hazards is necessary in order to reduce risk of workers' exposure to chemicals. Adequate training of workers and enterprise priority setting are essential elements. Cleaning enterprises have many challenges and the existing paradigms influence the risk levels of these enterprises. Methods: Information on organization and enterprises' prioritization in training programs was gathered from cleaning enterprises. A measure of enterprises' conceptual level of importance of chemical health hazards and a model for working out the risk index (RI) indicating enterprises' conceptual risk level was established and used to categorize the enterprises. Results: In 72.3% of cases, training takes place concurrently with task performances and in 67.4% experienced workers conduct the trainings. There is disparity between employers' opinion on competence level of the workers and reality. Lower conceptual level of importance was observed for cleaning enterprises of different sizes compared with regional safety delegates and occupational hygienists. Risk index values show no difference in risk level between small and large enterprises. Conclusion: Training of cleaning workers lacks the prerequisite for suitability and effectiveness to counter risks of chemical health hazards. There is dereliction of duty by management in the sector resulting in a lack of competence among the cleaning workers. Instituting acceptable easily attainable safety competence level for cleaners will conduce to risk reduction, and enforcement of attainment of the competence level would be a positive step.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.310-316
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• 2024

Background: The wood-processing industry has historically exhibited high rates of occupational hazards resulting in illness and injury. One of the major causes of high injury rates is small firm size, as resource constraints generally preclude hiring safety officers. This study examined the effect of a safety leadership training program that included coaching for managers on workers' safety behaviors and safety climate in three wood-processing companies. Methods: One or two managers at each site participated in this study. The manager training consisted of safety leadership education, safety observation, positive or corrective feedback on workers' behaviors, goal setting, and low-cost rewards for meeting goals. The dependent variable was the percentage of safe employee behaviors recorded on a critical behavior checklist developed for this study. Safety climate was measured before and after the intervention. An AB multiple baseline design across settings was adopted. After the baseline (A), the training program (B) was introduced to each site at different points in time. Results: After the introduction of safety leadership training, the mean rate of safety compliance increased by 15.3%, from 80.38% to 95.68%, and safety climate scores increased significantly from an average of 3.2 to 3.47. Conclusion: These results suggest that safety leadership coaching can be effective in improving safety management in small sawmilling sites. Implications, limitations, and possible future research directions are discussed.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.166-179
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• 2008

Purpose: This study was conducted to understand the situation of general hospital worker's health management and health promotion. Methods: To investigate the current situation of health management in the hospital, structured questionnaires were sent to 122 occupational health providers by post. About 79% hospitals returned questionnaires. The data were analyzed using descriptive analysis, ${\chi}^2$-test by SPSS 12.0 program. Results: A quarter hospitals responded set up separated health care office for workers, 87.5% provided health educations, and 56.5% operated health promotion projects. In the contents of health promotion program embraced both health behavior practice and disease prevention, musculoskeletal disease control, infection control, smoking cessation, and exercise program were most commonly provided to the workers in order. Occupational health care provider chose the item such as budget limitation, manager's apathy, lack of employee's participation, cooperation provider, and so on as the reason of difficulty to run health promotion program in the hospital setting. Conclusion: Hospital managers need to construct infra to manage and promote worker's health. For example, establishing Industrial safety and health committee in hospital and arranging nurses who being fully responsible to worker's health. And occupational health care provider should advertise health promotion projects both managers and workers actively.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.191-197
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• 2014

Background: Disabling fatigue is common in the working age population. It is essential that occupational health (OH) professionals are up-to-date with the management of fatigue in order to reduce the impact of fatigue on workplace productivity. Our aim was to evaluate the impact of one-day workshops on OH professionals' knowledge of fatigue and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), and their confidence in diagnosing and managing these in a working population. Methods: Five interactive problem-based workshops were held in the United Kingdom. These workshops were developed and delivered by experts in the field. Questionnaires were self-administered immediately prior to, immediately after, and 4 months following each workshop. Questionnaires included measures of satisfaction, knowledge of fatigue and CFS, and confidence in diagnosing and managing fatigue. Open-ended questions were used to elicit feedback about the workshops. Results: General knowledge of fatigue increased significantly after training (with a 25% increase in the median score). Participants showed significantly higher levels of confidence in diagnosing and managing CFS (with a 62.5% increase in the median score), and high scores were maintained 4 months after the workshops. OH physicians scored higher on knowledge and confidence than nurses. Similarly, thematic analysis revealed that participants had increased knowledge and confidence after attending the workshops. Conclusion: Fatigue can lead to severe functional impairment with adverse workplace outcomes. One-day workshops can be effective in training OH professionals in how to diagnose and manage fatigue and CFS. Training may increase general knowledge of fatigue and confidence in fatigue management in an OH setting.

• Therapeutic Science for Rehabilitation
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.59-70
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• 2017

Objective: It is important to assess the participation and understand the characteristics of participation for setting goal of the child's treatment and strengthening participation. In this study, we verified the validity of the LIFE-H 1.0, so that domestic occupational therapists can systematically evaluate children's participation. Methods: This study was conducted for about 2 months from February to April 2016 in 47 children with disabilities and non-disabled children. We divided the children into two groups aged 0-4 years and 5-13 years old and conducted a self-report questionnaire to parents. The collected data were verified by SPSS(Statistical Package for Social Science) statistical analysis program. Results: There was no difference between the two groups in general characteristics. In comparison of two groups, a significant difference(p<.05) was found in the LIFE-H 1.0 total performance and satisfaction score and the high discriminant validity was verified. Conclusion: The ultimate goal of occupational therapy is to increase participation. Therefore, the occupational therapist must be able to assess the level of participation and than set the goal of intervention. This study confirms the high level of validity and expects that Korean version of LIFE-H 1.0 will be widely used in clinical field and research.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.1054-1060
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• 2012

In order to analyze the influence of career self-efficacy on risk taking level in university students, career self-efficacy which becomes the basis of active occupational exploration was classified into four items including self evaluation, goal setting, occupational information and problem solving. Risk taking level was divided into three items of occupational selection, monetary management and human relation. 450 surveys were distributed to four-year university students in Seoul, capital area and rural area for three weeks from November 26 until December 17, 2011, among which 402 surveys were accepted as effective study subjects. Among items of career self-efficacy, most significant influence on self evaluation was shown in group with high risk taking level in monetary management, and problem solving had most significant influence in groups with high risk taking level in occupational selection and human relation. As a result, occupational information was found to have negative (-) influence on all items of risk taking level, with increasing degree of influence on occupational information for subjects showing lower degree of risk taking level. This study provides detailed analysis on individual's work task called risk taking level based on different occupational types, offering new verification of career self-efficacy as the most fundamental element of occupational exploration to university students looking for employment.

• Therapeutic Science for Rehabilitation
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.55-67
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• 2020

Objective : This study aimed to understand the burnout experience of hospital occupational therapists through phenomenological research. Methods : We conducted in-depth interviews with 6 occupational therapists working at hospital for 8 weeks. The data were analyzed using the Palangsae 2.0 software to derive meaning through the process of transcription and data entry, coding, and topic creation. Results : From the collected data, 14 sub-themes, 9 theme clusters, 3 categories were identified. The cause of burnout was confirmed as being due to therapy-related work and workplace conditions. The impacts of burnout on individual life were psychological in nature and also included being an adverse, influence on others. The coping strategies to deal with burnout were enrichment of personal life, self-awareness and philosophy, conscious approach, social support, and setting new goals for life. Conclusion : We suggest that spontaneous efforts are needed by occupational therapists in order to alleviate the conflicts of job identity. In addition, organizational regulations and programs and the establishment of horizontal organizational cultures are required to overcome and prevent burnout of occupational therapists.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.108-116
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• 2018

Objectives: This study investigated to the analytical work environment, analyst's expert and status of analytical instrument in the designated organization's laboratory for measuring work environment, and carried out to ensure reliability of analytical results. Methods: This study was conducted by 114 analysts who work in designated organization's laboratory for measuring work environment. Information on the working environment and personal characteristics of the analysts were collected using a self-reported questionnaire and were analyzed using the SPSS program through analysis of frequency and t-test. Results: The speciality of subjects was occupational health(57.0%), environmental health(38.6%) and environmental engineering(4.4%), and they had a higher level of academic ability than workers in other industries. Analysts had to handle a large number of sample analysis and many tasks other than analytical work. The analysts answered that it was difficult to analyze organic substances than inorganic substances, and the difficult parts were the analytical methods setting of new substances(55.3%), instrument analysis(24.6%) and principle of analysis(23.7%). Analytical instruments mainly have legally required instruments. The difficulty of the analysis is solved from the senior analyst in the laboratory and analytical information is mainly exchanged through seminar organized by the Association of Occupational Health Analysts. The analysts who are planning to move or considering the company were 48.2%, and the reasons for moving the company were difficult to work(14.0%), low salary(9.6%), employment type(8.8%) and job stress(7.0%). Conclusions: The conclusions of our study were that it was possible to secure reliability by solving the problems such as implementing professional education to improve expertise of analysts, strengthening analytical instruments through institutional improvement and improving work environment.

• Therapeutic Science for Rehabilitation
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.141-150
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• 2021

Objective : In this study, the upper extremity use, executive function, and occupational performance effects of cognitive orientation to daily occupational performance (CO-OP) interventions for patients with stroke were assessed. Methods : The study was designed as a single-group pre-post test with 20 sessions. The participants were five hospitalized patients with stroke who were present in a rehabilitation setting, and their onsets were more than 3 months previously. Outcomes were measured using the Canadian Occupation Performance Measure (COPM), Performance Quality Rating Scale (PQRS), Executive Function performance Test - Korean version (EFPT-K), and Motor Activity Log (MAL). The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was conducted to determine the difference between the pre-and-post of CO-OP interventions. The statistical significance level was p<.05. Results : The upper extremity function showed significant changes and the execution function showed significant changes in preparation, sequencing, judgment and safety, and closing, except for items to be started. The performance of the task also showed significant changes. Conclusion : Through 20 sessions of CO-OP interventions, especially in patients with chronic stroke, the upper extremity function, execution function, and task performance were improved. We found that CO-OP intervention had a positive effect on the improvement of detailed task elements as well as the performance of tasks overall, in patients with stroke.