Development and effectiveness of an occupational health and safety course in college general education

• Main Authors: Yu-Huei Tong, 董育蕙
• Other Authors: Chih-Chieh Chen
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2010
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/04523618653917890441

博士 === 臺灣大學 === 職業醫學與工業衛生研究所 === 98 === The concept of integrating occupational health and safety (OHS) into general education during early career training has been introduced before. However, the OHS education focused largely on the on-the-job workplace trainings and the professional developments of OHS specialists. There were some discussions about OHS curriculum need of specific majors in school, but limited discussion about providing OHS education for general college students. Learning OHS at colleges could be a pre-employment training for college students, so to provide the OHS information before the individual enters the workplace on campus should be important. Most undergraduate students eventually enter the workplace and they would not have much opportunity to take the OHS related courses in their previous schooling before taking jobs. Therefore, the Ministry of Education in Taiwan initiated ISHALE (Integrate Safety and Health Awareness in Liberal Education) program in 2004, which was designed to enhance college-level occupational health and safety education. The principal goals of this work were to provide the OHS general course modules and to assess the effectiveness of this course. Before developing OHS general course modules, a comprehensive questionnaire survey of college students in Taiwan was conducted during 2003-2004 to assess student awareness of, and interest in, OHS topics and personal factors that may influence the motivation to take college OHS courses. A two-credit general education course including 16 OHS topics was then developed according to the results of this nationwide survey. A before and after study design without a control group was used to evaluate the students’ OHS knowledge improvement by this course between 2006 and 2007. Thirty-nine multiple choice questions were utilized to assess students’ OHS knowledge of 13 topics. After the primary assessment of the course content, a quasi-experimental, nonequivalent control group design with pre-post-follow-up tests was utilized to evaluate the intervention effects, which included OHS knowledge, attitude, self-efficacy and behavioral-intention of students in 2007 school year. The intervention design included eight topics and the evaluations were performed three times - a pretest at the first class meet, a posttest at the week after the eight topics were completely taught and a follow-up test in four weeks after the posttest week. A total of 933 students enrolled in elective OHS classes at 18 colleges completed both pretest and posttest. The overall content was found to be appropriate to most enrolled students. Furthermore, participants’ knowledge, attitude, self-efficacy and behavioral-intention improved significantly by the intervention. The improvements were still significant at the follow-up test. This OHS general course opened a window to the young adult to acquire certain OHS knowledge that might be misunderstood or unknown before. Through this window, students learn the basic concepts of OHS and promote their learning interest in OHS. Therefore, the OHS general education program should be offered for all undergraduate students. Giving students the opportunities to explore OHS shall be an important seeding for further OHS training at workplace after their completion of school education.