AUTHOR=Naithani Manisha , Khapre Meenakshi , Kathrotia Rajesh , Gupta Puneet Kumar , Dhingra Vandana Kumar , Rao Shalinee 

TITLE=Evaluation of Sensitization Program on Occupational Health Hazards for Nursing and Allied Health Care Workers in a Tertiary Health Care Setting

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health

VOLUME=Volume 9 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2021.669179

DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2021.669179

ISSN=2296-2565

ABSTRACT=Introduction and background: Occupational health hazard pertaining to healthcare providers is one of the neglected areas and need to be given more importance as the health of the healthcare provider is of utmost importance given the wide gap between the required number and actual healthcare workers available the world over.
 Aim: We describe and evaluate the outcomes of a sensitization programme on occupational health hazards designed for healthcare professionals as a part of continuing professional development (CPD) in our institution.Materials and Methods: Participants were nursing and allied healthcare workers working at our institute. Multiple sessions, each of around 180 minutes were held periodically for small groups of around 20-30 participants were held over two years. Pre and post-test questionnaires were assessed as well as feedback forms were taken from all participants. Data was analysed for outcome in knowledge and perception of the topics related to occupational health pre- and post the workshop.Results: A total of 352 participants were included in the study. Statistically significant improvement in knowledge of all the target topics was found on evaluation of pre and post test questionnaires.Conclusion: Our study revealed that there was a significant improvement in knowledge and perception of information related to occupational health hazards. This programme has potential to bring forth the awareness of occupational health hazards and improve health of healthcare professionals thus improving overall outcome of healthcare delivery in the long term. We assessed our programme through feedback and made changes in accordance with the majority of comments received in the same. Key words: Occupational health hazards, healthcare professionals, tertiary care centre, continuing professional development