Examining the awareness of occupational health and safety among healthcare workers in different clinics

Although the critical importance of Occupational Health and Safety awareness is universally acknowledged, the number of occupational fatalities and injuries continues to rise. In this context, it is imperative to increase employee awareness and minimize risks through the identification and rectification of systemic deficiencies. Particularly within healthcare services, the effective and efficient utilization of these services by the public necessitates the prior improvement of working conditions for healthcare professionals and the prompt identification and elimination of the hazards and risks to which they are exposed. The majority of published research in the literature employs a cross-sectional design and concentrates primarily on nurses within hospital settings. These studies typically focus on sharps and needlestick injuries concerning occupational accidents and on infectious diseases such as Hepatitis B and tuberculosis regarding occupational illnesses. This thesis aims to broaden this specific focus of the existing literature by comprehensively assessing not only the physical risks but also the psychosocial risk exposure of healthcare workers. This research investigated the relationships between the Occupational Health and Safety perceptions of hospital-based healthcare personnel and their socio-demographic and professional variables. The participant demographics were dominated by the 26–35 age bracket , female gender , and undergraduate-level education. A significant proportion of the workforce reported experiencing an occupational accident and an occupational disease; the primary reported morbidities included psychosocial disorders and sleep disorders. The statistical analysis indicated that passive variables such as educational level, marital status, and gender did not produce a significant difference in Occupational Health and Safety perception (p > 0.05), whereas age group, professional experience, and the unit of employment were found to have a significant impact on Occupational Health and Safety perception (p < 0.05). The most critical finding was the significantly lower general Occupational Health and Safety perception observed in the 18–25 age group and those with 1–5 years of tenure; these groups scored notably lower than others, especially in the Managerial Support and Health Screening factors. Furthermore, the act of reading the Occupational Health and Safety directive was found to significantly enhance perceptions related to occupational diseases, managerial support, and the physical environment (p < 0.001), which establishes that institutional communication directly impacts perceived employee security. The low institutional risk perception (only %13.7) reported occupational diseases as "frequent" or "very frequent") contradicts the high individual risk experience, highlighting critical gaps in diagnostic and reporting systems.