• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.97-101
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• 2016

Background: Workplace violence (WPV) is becoming an issue that needs immediate attention in the United States, especially during this period as more states are adopting the "stand your ground laws to promote worker protection." This study was conducted to investigate how WPV has contributed to an unsafe environment for nurses and nursing assistants who work in long-term medical care facilities. Methods: A structure questionnaire was used to collect data for the study. Three facilities were sampled and 80 nurses and certified nursing assistants participated in the study. Ninety-two percent (n = 74) were female and 8% (n = 6) were male. Approximately 62% were black or African American, approximately 33% were Caucasians, and only 2% were from other ethnicities. Results: We found that 65% of the participants had experienced WPV while 41% believed that management shows little or no concern for their safety. Approximately 23% of respondents believed that reporting supervisor's WPV act is an unsafe action. In addition, 22% of those who reported that they have experienced WPV believed that the work environment is not safe to perform their duties. This significant difference in perception of workplace safety between those who had experienced WPV and those who had not was significant (t = 3.95, df = 158, p < 0.0001). Conclusion: WPV is an epidemic problem that affects all health-care professionals. The findings of this study could help long-term medical care facilities' management identify the areas to focus on mitigating, controlling, and/or eliminating incidents of WPV.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.1-15
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• 2005

Recently in Korean Society, risk and safety has become a central discourse in not only the social and natural science but also political decision making. The efficient organizational management contributes to controlling the risk factors in the workplace. For the management is influenced and improved by the organizational culture, the alternatives more than simply improving the work environment or enforcing the education of safety on each workers are required. This study was the status of safety culture in organizational members(managers and workers, and specialist) including the attitude on the safety atmosphere and risk perception, and experiences, knowledges, motivation etc. For this part, the method of questionnaire and statistical analysis are mobilized. The degree of safety commitment of organization members appears relatively high (3.97 in five scale estimation), but there are variations in this results according to socio-demographic characteristics. At the same time, managers and professionals actively participation in the program related to safety than workers in production/sales. The higher income level and career is the more attention to the safety is. Based on this survey, we make an rough suggestion of several tasks to the policy -makers: improvement of communication on the risk and safety is required and in particular, the workers in the relatively low level in production/sales. The education system about safety which is, with one-side, provided by government or managers turns out to be inefficient. Rather, small group performance of the organizational members which they participate in the communication with interaction in the various discourse are able to provoke the safety mood in workplace.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.87-96
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• 2017

Objectives: Improvement of the reliability of work environment measurement results is one of the principal subjects to be resolved in the field of industrial hygiene. Thus, this study was conducted in order to review domestic programs for enhancing the reliability of work environment measurement results and propose a more efficient management plan for workplace monitoring. Materials and Methods: The current domestic programs reviewed in this study are the quality control system and evaluation system for industrial hygiene laboratories, the reliability system accompanied by KOSHA (the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency), the system of permissible exposure limits and observed inspection system for permissible exposure limits. Their contents and data were analyzed by reviewing articles, reports, and guidelines related to reliability improvement for work environment measurement results. Results: As a result of the literature review, all the domestic programs investigated in this study had both merits and demerits in terms of considering the reliability of work environment measurement results. In particular, the fact that preliminary notification is provided to the head of a workplace before implementation would be an obstacle for elevating the reliability of work environment measurement results. Conclusions: Based on the review results obtained from this study, it is proposed that on-site measurement without preliminary notification should be considered for a more efficient inspection system that would enhance the reliability of workplace monitoring.

• Proceedings of the Safety Management and Science Conference
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• 2013.04a
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• pp.19-29
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• 2013

Slips and falls are associated with many occupational injuries in Korea. It is also estimated that slipping are major contributors to slip, trip and fall injury burden. So "LOCAL RULE ON OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH STANDAR D" must be improved, especially article 3(prevention of slip, trip and fall). The primary purpose of the present study is to determine if, and to what extent, the standard could be improved in present environment. In order to fulfill our objective, the another regulation in Korea and foreign countries were investigated and reviewed. Many kind of standard, mandatory documents and guideline were also reviewed. And then, regulations, standard, guideline etc. reviewed were compared with each others. The article 3 was revised as below. 1. The floors of the traffic route in workplace shall have no hole or slope, or be uneven or slippery so as, in each case, to expose employees to slip, trip and fall risk, except if adequate measures have been taken to prevent a employees falling. 2. The employer shall design, install and fix the drain for effective drainage if fluid contaminants were frequently occurred. So far as is reasonably practicable, An employer shall keep the workplace clean, sanitary, and dry so that employees won't have any risk to tripping or slipping at the workplace. 3. To facilitate cleaning, every floor, workplace, and passageway shall be, so far as is reasonably practicable, kept free from protruding objects, splinters, holes, etc. Also, some criteria was developed in this study. Standard and criteria developed in this study will help to prevent slip, trip, and fall injuries.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.314-318
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• 2018

Background: Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) in the health industry are quite common, however, there have only been a few studies regarding physiotherapists, while in Greece, there is an apparent lack of research and data. The aim of this study is to investigate MSDs experienced by physiotherapists in Greece, their causes and specific measures, and good practices followed. Additional emerging risk factors will be examined. Methods: A questionnaire of MSDs followed by individual and workplace characteristics was completed by 252 physiotherapists. It covered the major workplace categories such as public hospitals, private rehabilitation centers, and private practices. Results: Analysis indicated that 89% of the respondents had experienced a work-related MSD; 32.2% of those injuries occurred within the first 5 years of working. The most lumbered physiotherapists were those working as private practitioners and almost half of the injured respondents chose to work while injured. The most common measure taken to tackle work related MSDs was found to be physical therapy sessions. Job satisfaction and psychosocial issues were also identified as side-effects of the economic slowdown. Conclusion: Physiotherapists in Greece were found to suffer from MSDs; workplace musculoskeletal injuries were quite common but under-reported. The body parts most affected were the lower back, the upper back, the shoulders, and the neck. There was a strong correlation between the workplace setting and the number of MSDs. A well-defined occupational safety and health management system and strict administration steering were found to reduce MSDs. The economic slowdown experienced in Greece during the execution of this study placed additional pressure on physiotherapists.

• Safety and Health at Work
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.305-311
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• 2015

Background: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship nursing personal and workplace system factors (work disability) and work ability index scores in Ontario, Canada. Methods: A total of 111 registered nurses were randomly selected from the total number of registered nurses on staff in the labor, delivery, recovery, and postpartum areas of four northeastern Ontario hospitals. Using a stratified random design approach, 51 participants were randomly selected in four northeastern Ontario cities. Results: A total of 51 (45.9% response rate) online questionnaires were returned and another 60 (54.1% response rate) were completed using the paper format. The obstetric workforce in northeastern Ontario was predominately female (94.6%) with a mean age of 41.9 (standard deviation = 10.2). In the personal systems model, three variables: marital status (p = 0.025), respondent ethnicity (p = 0.026), and mean number of patients per shift (p = 0.049) were significantly contributed to the variance in work ability scores. In the workplace system model, job and career satisfaction (p = 0.026) had a positive influence on work ability scores, while work absenteeism (p = 0.023) demonstrated an inverse relationship with work ability scores. In the combined model, all the predictors were significantly related to work ability scores. Conclusion: Work ability is closely related to job and career satisfaction, and perceived control at work among obstetric nursing. In order to improve work ability, nurses need to work in environments that support them and allow them to be engaged in the decision-making processes.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.35-48
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• 2004

The purpose of this study is to find injurious factors and to propose an improvement plan on workers' musculoskeletal disorders at a bakery workplace through analyzing the symptom, work posture and quantitative estimate. For this study, a survey and ergonomic estimate methods were adopted. According to the survey, it was analyzed that 429 workers corresponding to 68.2% of the response have been experienced the symptoms of musculoskeletal disorders such as an ache, prickle and numbness. The result of QEC analysis shows that shoulder and waist are highly exposed to musculoskeletal disease. The result of RULA analysis shows that injurious factors of muscle, weight and repeated operations are a little higher than those of operation posture. The result of SI estimate shows that pre-treatment of making bread requiring highly repeated operation gets the highest point of 81, on the other hand, chocolate-coating job requiring relatively low speed and short time gets the point of 4.5. Based on the analyzed results, improvement plan to prevent the musculoskeletal disorders against injurious working process of a bakery workplace. The goal of this study is to propose the improved scheme that prevents the workers against musculoskeletal disorders. A questionnaire and an ergonomic assessment method were adopted to analyze the symptoms of workers' musculoskeletal disorders, and an analysis of working postures and a quantitative assessment on various processes were performed to find out harmful factors of workplace.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.31-41
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• 2020

The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between bullying, nursing work environment, reality shock and factors of influence on turnover intension. Data were collected from 381 nurses who were under the charge nurse at a hospital with more than 600 beds in Seoul. The collected data were analyzed using the SPSS24.0 program. The mean score for turnover intension was 3.61 ± 0.89. The intension of turnover was correlated with bullying in the workplace (r=0.197, ⍴=.001), the nursing work environment (r=-.409, p=.001), and reality shock (r=.572, p=.001). Variables affecting turnover intension were the work department(β=-0.018, ⍴=.049), working environment(β=-0.424, ⍴<.000), and reality shock(β=0.654, ⍴<.000). The total amount of explanation for turnover intension was 37.3%. The degree of turnover intension of nurses was affected by work in general wards, the experience of workplace bullying and the nursing work environment. To reduce turnover intension, nursing work needs to be analyzed and efforts are needed to establish an effective communication system.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.21-26
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• 2019

Objective: The aim of this study is to analyze an excess trend for domestic permissible exposure limit of trichloroethylene based on previous literature review. Materials and Methods: The research object is a trichloroethylene among 13 chemical substances regulated with PEL(Permissible Exposure Limit) in Occupational Safety and Health Act. The information utilized from this study is the work environment measurement data from 2004 to 2013. The highest level among concentration data measured at various workplaces was selected as a representative value through data process. N.D. (Not Detected) data was considered as 1/2 of LOD(Limit Of Detection). Results: Among work environment measurement data between 2004 and 2013, the highest number of excess workplace and excess rate(24 sites & 1.15%) was observed in 2008's data when applying the PEL(50 ppm) of trichloroethylene. When they are compared with the ACGIH's TLV-TWA(10 ppm), 2008's data showed the highest number of excess workplace and excess rate(175 sites & 8.37%). The number of excess workplace and excess rate related to PEL of trichloroethylene showed increase trend in 2005 but tended to decrease after 2008. Conclusions: Based on the results obtained from this study, the exposure level of trichloroethylene in case of domestic workers is not considered as a safe phase regardless of the year of work environment measurement year. Thus, a strictly preventive management in workplace should be provided for reducing exposure level of trichloroethylene.

• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.125-146
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• 2023

The aims of this study was to investigate the effect of workplace support and access to workplace counseling on the depression level of employees who are workplace bullying victims and then find cross-level interaction effects between individual and group factors. A multi-level analysis was conducted using data from 642 individuals who reported experiencing workplace bullying in the 2017 National Human Rights Commission survey. The findings indicate that a worker's perceived safety of their workplace is negatively associated with depression levels. Additionally, higher perceived workplace support and access to workplace counseling were associated with lower depression levels. Lastly, a positive interaction effect was observed between access to workplace counseling and perceived workplace support in relation to depression levels. That is, higher access to workplace counseling increases the negative effect of workplace support on depression levels of employees. These results highlight the importance of creating protective factors such as a safe and supportive organizational culture to combat workplace bullying of coworkers or supervisors, and implementation of counseling and support services to assist victims in coping with workplace bullying and reducing depression symptoms.