Association Between Work-Related Safety and Work-Related Injuries Among Home Health Care Providers

Home care nurses (HCNs) have reported a high rate of exposure to work-related injuries (WRIs). Nurses are challenged by the multidimensional problems associated with home care safety. These contextual risk factors increase the physical and social health problems of health care workers and of community suffering as a whole. This quantitative, cross-sectional study was designed to examine the relationship between the organization-related factors (ORFs) and the environment-related factors (ERFs) and their influences on safety behaviors (SBs) and the WRIs of HCNs. The PRECEDE framework was used to guide the study. Self-reported data were obtained from 74 home health care (HHC) nurses using the Safety Home Care Nursing questionnaire. A linear regression model was applied to determine the nature of the association between the independent variables and dependents variables. Findings showed the ORFs demonstrate a stronger effect on the SBs than the impact of the ERFs. The management commitment and the home-based care significantly affected the SBs. The supervisory support and safety access to a client\u27s home were decreasing the WRIs. Therefore, the integration of efforts: The management and leadership of the health organization, the health care providers, and the clients\u27 family would improve safety of HHC. This study is expected to help develop safety strategies for home care and thus attempt to minimize WRIs among HCNs. Nurses free of injuries are able to provide a quality of care and improve patients\u27 health outcomes that in turn have an effect on reducing community suffering and financial costs