Risk perception among workers with previous occupational accidents in pre-hospital settings

Abstract

Objective: to identify the risk perception of workers with previous occupational accidents in Mobile Emergency Care Services. Method: this quantitative and analytical study with a cross-sectional design was conducted with 265 professionals working in pre-hospital settings from 57 cities in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. An online questionnaire addressed sociodemographic characteristics, previous occupational accidents and the workers’ occupational risk perceptions rated on a five-point Likert scale. The analysis included descriptive statistics, mean, standard deviation, median, and associations were verified using the Mann-Whitney test; the level of significance was established at p<0.05. Results: the occupational risks the workers more frequently reported were: exposure to blood (4.43); exposure to contaminated secretion/excretion (4.36); contact and handling of hygienization products (4.28); exposure to bacteria (4.25); lifting and transporting heavy loads (4.25); and exposure to viruses (4.23). A significant association was found between the risk perception of workers with previous occupational accidents and chemical (p=0.001), physical (p=0.006), ergonomic or psychological (p=0.000) risks, and accidents (p=0.000). Conclusion: association between the risk perception of workers who had previously experienced occupational accidents was significant, suggesting that workers may not identify or trivialize risks before they experience an accident. Therefore, actions are needed to encourage changes in behavior so that workers identify risks and prevent occupational accidents, such as adopting personal and collective protective equipment and improving the work conditions in pre-hospital settings.