Factors Influencing the Implementation of Occupational Health and Safety Measures At Kitale County Referral Hospital, Kenya

Abstract

Most 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 injuries around the world, including in Kenya. Healthcare workers too are exposed to various occupational hazards at the workplace namely, biological, Physical, Psychosocial, ergonomics hazards. This study’s main goal was to investigate factors influencing the implementation of Occupational Health and Safety measures at Kitale County Referral Hospital. The specific objectives of the study were to investigate the influence of management commitment, staff accountability, staff participation, staff training and role of government policy on the implementation of occupational health and safety measures at Kitale County Referral Hospital. The study was based on Domino and Heinrich Safety theory. This research methodology used was a cross-sectional descriptive design with a mixed methods approach. The targeted study population was 246 healthcare workers and ten hospital managers at Kitale County Referral Hospital. 146 health workers and ten hospital managers who were sampled to participate in the study were determined by simple random and purposive sampling. Approval for data collection provided by Scientific Ethics Committee at Kenya Methodist University and National Council of Science and Technology, data was collected using a 5-point Likert scale structured questionnaire, and Key Informant Interview (KII) guide. Descriptive present while Statistical Package for Social Sciences SPSS version 25 was used to analyze quantitative data. Qualitative data from key informant interview was analyzed using thematic approach. The Spearman’s correlation coefficients, namely (0.623, p<0.05) for management commitment, (0.602, p<0.05) for staff participation, (0.687, p<0.05) for training, and (0.678, p<0.05) for role of government policy were high indicating that there existed a significant statistical relationship between each of the independent variables and the implementation of Occupational Health and safety. This implies that that each of the independent variables had a direct effect on the implementation of Occupational Health and safety at the hospital. In addition, ordered regression results, namely, age (Φ = 0.055; p<0.01), gender (Φ = 0.208; p<0.05), marital status (Φ = 0.002 p = ns), education (Φ = 0.105; p<0.01), cadre (Φ = 0.098; p<0.1), Management Commitment (Φ = 0.018; p<0.01), Staff Participation (Φ = 0.012; p = ns), Safety Staff Training (Φ = 0.090, p<0.05), and Government Policy (Φ = 0.223; p<0.01) also confirmed that there existed a direct and positive relationship between the Occupational Health and Safety implementation and each of the independent variables. As such, the study recommends the need for every public hospital to train staff to take key roles in promoting the implementation of Occupational Health and Safety at their facilities. The facilities should also set up a management committee charged with the responsibility of leading the implementation of Occupational Health and Safety and the County Government should ensure that government policies are in place to promote the implementation of in County Referral Hospitals.