SAFETY KNOWLEDGE AS PREDICTOR OF ACCIDENT PREVENTION AND CRISIS MANAGEMENT AMONG HEALTH AND INDUSTRIAL SOCIAL WORKERS IN SOUTH-WEST NIGERIA

Authors

  • I M OJEDOKUN,
  • E M AJALA

Keywords:

afety knowledge, Accident prevention, Crisis Management, Health Social Workers, Industrial Social Workers

Abstract

            Safety consciousness is an everyday affair that is closely knitted with security. Safety consciousness which is a way of accident prevention couple with crisis management has become a challenge in the workplace. The absence of knowledge of safety on the part of Social workers intervention in accident prevention and crisis management has become challenging in different ways to the extent of affecting individuals, families, organizations and communities. To this end this study looked at safety knowledge as predictor of accident prevention and crisis management among health and industrial social workers in South-West Nigeria. The study adopts the descriptive survey research design with the population consisting of health social workers in public hospitals and industrial social workers in selected manufacturing firms in the South West Nigeria. Random sampling was used to select three states, Oyo, Lagos and Ogun States, out of the six states in the South West. The population was clustered into health and industrial sectors. Purposive sampling technique was used to select forty respondents from each stratum thereby making a total of two hundred and forty respondents. A self-developed questionnaire tagged “Safety Knowledge, Accident prevention and Crisis Management Questionnaire- SKAPCMQ†with a reliability coefficient of 0.84 was used for data collection. The instrument was rated on a four-point scale of Strongly Disagree (SD=1), Disagree (D=2), Agree (A=3), Strongly Agree (SA=4). Frequency counts and percentages were used to analyse the demographic characteristics of the respondents while Pearson Product Moment Correlation was used to test the research hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings from the study showed that health and industrial social workers’ safety knowledge had a significant relationship with accident prevention (r = 0.855, P < 0.05) and that health and industrial social workers’ safety knowledge had a significant relationship with crisis management (r = 0.529, P < 0.05). Based on these findings, it was recommended that employers should provide financial support for in-service training of social workers on crisis and disaster management to improve proficiency of the work force. 

References

Ajala, E.M. (2009). Staff Training as correlate of Workers’ Productivity in Selected Service Industries in Osun State, Nigeria. African Journal for the Psychological Studies of Social Issues, 12(2), 231-244.

Ajala, E.M., & Mojoyinola, J.K. (2008). Social Work Interventions in the Psycho-Social Management of Stress among Industrial Workers. African Journal for the Psychological Studies of Social Issues, 11(1), 113-127.

Ajala, E.M., & Osazuwa, Isi (2012). Industrial Safety Practices as Determinants of Employees’ Performance and Well-being at Selected Industries in Port-Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria. Journal of Health, Safety and Environment, 28(2), 231-242.

Belilos, C. (2001) Emergency Management, Safety and Security. Downloaded from:www.easytraining.com/profile. Retrieved on: 26/5/2016

Blank, B. (2006) Training Safety First: Paying Heed to and Preventing Professional Risk. The new Social Worker: Social Work E-News, Issue 74. Downloaded from: www.socialworker.com/safetyfirst. Retrieved on: 26/6/2016.

Brodie, P. (2009). Health and Safety: Violence at Work, Nursing Standard, 21(13), 43-46.

Curtin,D., & Mapes, B.F. (2001). Safety Need: An essential Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. International Professional Nursing Journal, 5(1), 30-36.

Curtin,D., & Mapes, B.F., Pettillo, R., & Oberly, T. (2002). Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. The Nursing Needs and Skills, 5(4), 22-28.

Francozo, M.D., & Cassorla, R.M. S. (2004) Rewards and Frustrations of being a Social Worker: A qualitative Study. Journal of Social Work Practice, 18(2), 211-221.

Gibelman, M. (2005). What Social Workers Do (2nd ed.). Washington, DC.: NASW Press.

Greene, G. J., Lee, M., Trask, R., & Rheinscheld, J. (2000). How to work with Clients’ Strengths in Crisis Intervention. In A. R. Roberts (Ed.) Crisis Intervention Handbook: Assessment, Treatment and Research.

Greenstone, J. L., & Leviton, S. C. (2002). Elements of Crisis Intervention: Crises and How to Respond to Them. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.

Georgoussi, E. (2003) Research Note Social Workers in Greece: How they spend their Working Hours. European Journal of Social Work, 6(1), 65-71.

Henry, K., & Campbell, S. (2007). Prevention of Needle-stick Injuries in Health. International Professional Nursing Journal, 5(1), 11-29.

International Labour Organization (2005). Prevention of Accidents: Seafarers. Downloaded from www. Mcga.Gov.uk Retrieved on 23 / 04/ 2005.

James, P. (2014). Human Security as a left-over of Military Security or as Integral to the Human Condition. In Paul Bacon and Christopher Hobson (eds.), Human Security and Japan’s Triple Disaster. London. Routledge. 73.

James, R. K. (2005). Crisis Intervention Strategies (6th Ed). Belmot. CA: Thompson Books/Cole.112.

Jane, H, (20015). Be Careful: Personal Safety for Social Workers. Downloaded from: www.easytraining.com/profile. Retrieved on: 26/6/2016

Jones, C., Ferguson, I., Lovalette, M., & Penket, L. (2004). Social Work and Social Justice: A Manifesto for a New Engaged Practice. Downloaded from:www.liv.ac.uk/sspsw/manifesto. Retrieved on: 26/6/16

Mathbor, G. (2007). Enhancement of Community Preparedness for Natural Disaster. The role of Social Work in Building Social Capital for Sustainable Disaster Relief and Management. International Journal of Social Work, 50, 357 – 369.

Nonye, M.O. (2004). School Accidents: The need for Safety Education. Nigeria School Health Journal, 16(1 & 2), 33-38.

Nigerian School Health Journal, Editorial. (2002). Safety Education in Nigerian Schools, 14: 1& 2.

Ojedokun,I.M. (2004). Accident and Emergency Management Skills and Safety Education. Ibadan.Alleluiah Publishers.

Ojedokun, I. M. (2011). Effects of Safety Education Programme on Safety Knowledge of Nursing Students in South-West Nigeria. A Ph. D Theses, Department of Human Kinetics and Health Education, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.

Ontario Association of Social Workers. (2016). Social Work in Hospital Document. Downloaded from: www.socialworker.com/safetyfirst. Retrieved on: 12/5/2016

Paul, S., Coen, V.G., & Walter, Z. (2010). Safety Science: Safety Metaphors and Theories: A Review of the Occupational Safety of the US, UK and the Netherlands. 48.8:1000-1018. Downloaded: from www.safety.org. Retrieved on: 13/09/2016.

Roberts, A. R. (2005). Myths, Facts and Realities Regarding Battered Women and their Children: An Overview. In A.R. Robert (Ed) Handbook of Domestic Violence: Intervention Strategies. New York: oxford press. 3-22.

Roberts, A. R. (2000). Crisis Intervention Handbook: Assessment, Treatment and Research. New York: Oxford University Press.

Rogers, A.M. (2001). Nurture, Bureaucracy and Rebalancing the Mind and Heart. Journal of Social Work Practice, 15(2), 99-112.

Samadirad, A. (2008). Critique of Social Work in Iran. Iran: Kayhan

Sastry, K. (2001). Improving Community Participation and Peoples Awareness in Disaster Reduction. A paper presented at the first Edition of the Global Blueprints of Change and for use in Conjunction with the International workshop on Disaster Reduction in Reston VA.

Shannon, A. (2016). Workplace safety for social workers: A Student’s Analysis and Opinion. The new social worker. The Social Work Careers Magazine.

Sherry, S. (2010). Violent Crime and Social Worker Safety. Social Work Today Magazine.

Stewart, A., Chris, C., & Lorraine, W. (2005). The Role of the Social Worker in the 21st Century: A Literature Review. University of Edinburgh. Downloaded from: www.21csocialworker.org.uk. Retrieved on: 26/5/2016.

Whitaker, T., Weismiller, T., Clark, E., & Wilson, M. (2006). Assuring the Sufficiency of a Front Line Workforce: A National Study of Licensed Social Workers. Special Report: Social Work Services in Health Care Settings. Washington.

World Health Organisation (2014). Chronic Diseases. Downloaded From: www.who.int/topics/chronic diseases. Retrieved on:26/7/2016.

Younghusband, E. (1959). Report of the Working Party on Social Workers in the Local Authority Health and Welfare Services. London: HMSO.

Downloads

Published

2017-02-27