Examination of the occupational safety perception of the personnel working in the search and rescue unit

In accordance with the Turkey Disaster Response Plan (TDRP), all local governments are obliged to establish Search and Rescue and Fire Brigade units. All local governments, especially in the provinces of Istanbul and Ankara, supported the TDRP plan and planned that it should be done in case of emergency. The first priority of the employees in the teams where search and rescue activities are carried out is to be safe. For this reason, occupational safety has been determined as the most important issue in search and rescue activities. It is seen that there are insufficient studies to examine the occupational safety perception of search and rescue unit employees. In this study, the perception of occupational safety of employees in search and rescue units is determined.Personnel working in Search and Rescue Units in Erzincan and Erzurum provinces (n=152) were included in the study. After examining the socio-demographic profile of the personnel working in the search and rescue unit, the descriptive analysis results for the Occupational Safety Scale were examined. While examining the differentiation status of the group scores of the variables according to their personal information, the "independent sample t test" was used in the comparisons of the variables that provided the normal distribution assumption, and "ANOVA" was used in the comparisons of three or more groups. Occupational safety does not differ statistically significantly according to the gender, work accident experience, income status, education level, professional title, and professional seniority of the personnel working in the search and rescue unit (p>.05). Occupational safety differs statistically significantly according to the age of the personnel working in the search and rescue unit and the status of receiving occupational accident training (p<.05). The recommendations of the study are as follows. Special training should be offered to the search and rescue unit. This will include pre-employment OSH training and employers' training. There should be an OSH specialist assigned to deliver ongoing employer seminars in these industries. Trained employers should appoint specialists to conduct periodic training of their employees. Every institution should conduct an on-site risk analysis and try to improve working conditions by applying OHS rules and regulations. Occupational safety training should be given at all levels of education and a certain standard should be provided in the curriculum. Occupational health and safety training programs should not be limited to vocational high schools, but should be included in all high schools. Keywords: Occupational Health and Safety, Occupational Safety Perception, Exploratory Factor Analysis, Confirmatory Factor Analysis.