Nosacq-50 occupational safety culture research at the volunteer search and rescue association in disaster and emergency situations

This research aims to examine the perceptions of occupational safety culture among volunteer individuals participating in search and rescue activities during disasters and emergencies, and to contribute to the literature in this field. The population of the study consists of 720 individuals serving as volunteer members in a search and rescue association. Without selecting a sample, an attempt was made to reach the entire population, and 604 volunteers were contacted. The data of 17 participants were excluded from the analysis due to missing or incorrect data, and the study included 587 volunteers. Data collection tools included a 13-item "Demographic Information Form" and a 50-item "NOSACQ-50 Occupational Safety Culture Survey." In the data analysis, frequency and percentage distributions, mean and standard deviation values, as well as parametric tests, independent groups t-test, ANOVA, LSD test, and correlation analyses were applied. The average age of the volunteers who participated in the study was 31.31 ± 9.79 years. The average experience duration in the search and rescue team was 2.40 ± 2.58 years. Of the volunteers, 65.2% (n=383) were male, 66.1% (n=388) were single, 64.4% (n=378) had no children, and 65.6% (n=385) had a university degree. 55.9% (n=328) worked more than 40 hours per week, 75.3% (n=442) had received occupational safety and health (OSH) training, 64.2% (n=377) had not experienced a near-miss event, 85.2% (n=500) had received a tetanus vaccine in the last 5 years, 94.0% (n=552) had not experienced a workplace accident, 91.7% (n=538) reported no health problems, and 23.9% (n=140) had worked in the education sector in their professional history. Differences in perceptions of occupational safety culture were observed according to the demographic characteristics of the participants. Significant relationships were found between marital status, number of children, education level, weekly working hours, OSH training, tetanus vaccination, and workplace accident experience with the sub-dimensions and total score averages of the NOSACQ-50 (p<0.05). Additionally, a positive relationship was found between age and experience duration. Based on these results, it was found that volunteers with a low occupational safety culture should be identified as a priority group for improvement. It is recommended that volunteers receive training from experts in the field, strengthen OSH and accident reporting cultures, activate practical procedures, monitor the use of personal protective equipment, provide psychological support, enhance communication infrastructure, and use accident reporting forms. It is also emphasized that legal gaps should be filled, disaster-specific occupational health and safety laws should be created, and volunteers should be included in insurance coverage. For future research, it is recommended that these findings be tested in different populations and with a larger sample to evaluate their effectiveness.