ArticleHuman factors are playing an essential role in
ensuring occupational health and safety
at work. In the healthcare sector, relevant factors include optimizing the interaction of humans
with their technical, social working environment, and human characteristics such as knowledge
and motivation. Those fac
tors affect the ability to provide good quality of healthcare and safety
performance. The aim of this paper is to analyse factors related to safety knowledge,
communication and professional competence among caregivers in nursing homes. A group of
professio
nals studied (n
=
241, includes nurses and caregivers) completed a validated
questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and correlation analyses were applied, using SPSS
Statistics
24.
Our study revealed that over half of the respondents possess an occupational
certificate and the
majority of employers organize regular in
-
service training at workplaces. Respondents who
claimed that in
-
service trainings are not regular still stated that they generally receive safety and
ergonomic related trainings, trainings for
working with special equipment. However, only a
quarter of responden
ts have access to occupational
safety trainings that f
ocus on specific risks at
work.
Based on the results of the study, we emphasize the need of integrating human factors in the
safety ma
nagement system in nursing homes with a special focus on adequate safety training in
order to develop necessary skills and knowledge of workers. This would enhance employees’
ability to cope successfully with the elderly and people with special needs, to p
rovide safe and
high
-
quality care as well as confidence and the knowledge how successfully they manage
conflicts in order to ke
ep good relationships at work