Evaluation of occupational health and safety practices during the covid-19 pandemic

Objective: This study was aimed to evaluate occupational health and safety (OHS) practices in the workplace during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, from the eyes of occupational health and safety professionals Material-Method: This study is a descriptive research wich has quantitative and qualitative parts, which was conducted April-November 2020. The population of this study was consisted of OHS professionals in Turkey who actively working during the COVID-19 pandemics. The quantitative and qualitative part of the research was carried out electronically. In the quantitative part of the study, 413 OHS professional were included, 277 of whom occupational safety specialists, 108 of them occupational physicians and 28 of them allied health personnel. In the qualitative part of the study, 24 OHS professional were included, 13 of whom occupational safety specialist and 11 of them occupational physicians. Results: In the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been determined that the duties of HSE professionals have increased, especially in guidance, information and risk assessment. The difficulties experienced by OHS professionals during the pandemic process are categorized under the headings of OHS application areas, management of symptomatic employees and contacts, organization of employees with chronic diseases, increase in workload and organization of supplier companies / customers. Various challenging factors have been highlighted for these areas, especially the normalization period, social characteristics, the state, employee and employer-related factors. Conclusion: This research has revealed that in addition to the difficulties experienced in OHS practices against COVID-19, as stated by almost all of the participants, there are problems in routine OHS practices. In this process, new strategies and cooperation to be developed in line with weak points in OHS practices will carry the role of OHS on employee and public health to a more effective point.