Healthcare Workers Training and Implementation of Occupational Health and Safety (OSH) Measures at Kitale County Referral Hospital, Kenya

Abstract

Purpose: Many people, including healthcare workers, spend one-third of their adult lives in hazardous work environments. Despite significant advancements in safety management over the last few decades, occupational health continues to contribute to work-related health problems around the world, including in Kenya. The study's main goal was to investigate factors influencing the implementation of occupational health and safety measures at Kitale County Referral Hospital. Methodology: The research was cross-sectional, descriptive, and mixed-methods. The targeted study population was 246 healthcare workers at Kitale County Referral Hospital, and 146 were randomly sampled. Key Informant Interview (KII) guidelines and a structured questionnaire were utilized to collect data. Data was coded, entered, and analyzed in STATA v15. A thematic method was utilized for analyzing KII qualitative data. Findings: Spearman's correlation coefficients (0.687, p<0.05) for training show a strong link between these HealthCare’s training and OHS implementation. This means that traning directly affects hospital OHS implementation. Ordered regression results include age (Φ = 0.055; p<0.01), gender (Φ = 0.208; p<0.05), education (Φ = 0.105; p<0.01), cadre (Φ = 0.098; p<0.1), staff training (Φ = 0.090, p<0.05 confirmed that there existed a direct and positive relationship between the occupational health and safety implementation and some of the independent variables. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: Thus, the study proposes that public hospitals teach staff to promote occupational health and safety. The facilities should also establish a management committee to drive OSH implementation, and the county government should guarantee that policies encourage OSH in county referral hospitals.