EXAMINATION OF THE PERCEPTION LEVELS OF EMPLOYEES IN HEALTH INSTITUTIONS IN TERMS OF OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY

Abstract

According to the Occupational Health and Safety Law No. 6331, employers are obliged to provide their employees with a healthy and safe working environment. Employees in healthcare institutions are exposed to physical, chemical, biological, and psychosocial risk factors during their duties. Due to the pandemic process, healthcare professionals work in difficult conditions and face death as a result of the infection with the Covid-19 virus. In order to protect employees in health institutions against work accidents and occupational diseases, the employer is required to provide occupational health and services to their employees. It should show proactive approaches by analyzing the existing dangers and risks in the work environment at their source. Proactive approaches are only possible with risk assessment and risk management.

This study was conducted to examine the occupational health and safety perception levels of healthcare professionals working in different healthcare institutions located on the European side of Istanbul. In the study, the data were collected by questionnaire method. The responses of the employees to the questionnaire were analyzed with the program "IBM SPSS Statistics 25.0" and the value of "Cronbach Alpha (α)" was found to be 0.824. The fact that α value is in the range of 0.8 <α <1.0 indicates that the study conducted is reliable. According to the results of the study, the OHS perception level of the employees varies depending on the OHS training, the contamination of Covid-19, their age, profession, service year and the unit they work in, marital status, monthly income, education level, gender, OHS measures taken during the pandemic process, the institution they work for. It is concluded that it is not dependent on such factors. It has been determined that employees attach more importance to occupational health and safety measures due to the increase in years of service.