The effect of safety climate on safety performance in pre-hospital emergency health services

Occupational health and safety are of greater importance than all other work areas in emergency health services, which are the first units to arrive at the scene and intervene in the patient. The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of the level of safety climate perceived by pre-hospital emergency health services employees on their own safety performance.This study was conducted face-to-face with 464 pre-hospital emergency health services personnel in the city center of Diyarbakır. In this study, no sampling method was used, an attempt was made to reach the entire research universe. The study data was collected with a three-part survey consisting of a Personal Information Form, Safety Climate Scale, and Safety Performance Scale. Descriptive statistics, relational and causal analyses, and Path analysis were applied to the data collected in the study. According to the results of the research, 40% of the employees stated that they were subjected to violence at least once, 50% had a work accident, and 60% had an occupational disease at least once. The most common causes of work accidents are infected needlestick injuries and injuries from shaking in the ambulance. The most common work accidents are injuries while transporting patients and injuries with cutting and piercing tools. The most common occupational diseases are sleep disorders, herniated discs, depression, anxiety, neck hernia, and infectious diseases.According to the research results, as employees' perception of safety climate increases, safety performance increases. While the organizational environment showed the lowest average among safety climate sub-dimensions, awareness and competence showed the highest average. The safety performance and safety climate perception average was found to be low in employees who were exposed to more violence, had work accidents, and had occupational diseases. The safety climate sub-dimensions that have the greatest impact on safety performance are awareness and competence, safety communication, and safety training. The negativities of the organizational environment cause employees to exhibit more safe behaviors.The results of this study showed that employees working in pre-hospital emergency health services are among the most at-risk work groups. Due to the nature of the job, it is difficult to exhibit safe behaviors while providing emergency health services. Despite this, the safety performance of employees was high in both safety compliance and safety participation sub-dimensions. The positive effect of safety training and communication on employees' occupational health and safety behaviors is also among the findings that should be considered. As a result, the elements that employees find most negative are the deficiencies and mistakes in the organizational environment that arise from the work itself. This problem can also be reduced with a better work plan and staff reinforcement