Safety-related Knowledge Research Articles

Occupational health and safety related knowledge, attitude and practice among metal workers of Bogura city

Occupational health and safety related knowledge, attitude and practice among metal workers of Bogura city

Learning in virtual reality: Effects of instruction type and emotional arousal on learning performance

Virtual reality (VR) provides a powerful tool in education and training due to its ability to create immersion and arouse emotions compared to the traditional approaches like paper-based and screen-based. This study investigates the effects of instruction type and emotional arousal on learning performance in the VR environment. We employed a kitchen scenario where participants learned the safety-related knowledge of three electric appliances. In the experiment, 72 participants were assigned to one of the six VR conditions, i.e., 2 (emotional arousal: arousal and non-arousal) × 3 (instruction type: text, video, and interactive). Participants in the arousal group had to stay in a virtual, burning room for five minutes before the learning task, whereas participants in the non-arousal group started the learning task directly. The results suggested that the virtual, burning room successfully aroused fear-related emotions in participants and enhanced learning performance compared to participants in the non-arousal group. Additionally, participants who experienced the interactive instructions showed better learning performance than those who experienced text- or video-based instructions. The results confirmed VR’s advantages in emotion induction and learning promotion.

Factors Affecting Children’s Mortality Due to Traffic Accidents Using Haddon Model and Statistical Process Control in Ardabil Province, Iran

Background: The under-five mortality rate is one of the most important indicators of sustainable development, and accidents and injuries are the leading causes of child mortality. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors affecting child mortality from road traffic accidents in Ardabil province, Iran. Methods: This descriptive-analytical study investigated all mortalities of children under 5 years from road traffic accidents and injuries that occurred in Ardabil within 2013 and 2021. Standard questionnaires of the Child Health Department of the Iran Ministry of Health and Medical Education were used to collect data. Based on the Haddon matrix, the data were classified into three groups, namely Pre-event, Event, and Post-event. P-charts were used in statistical process control to control the care process in the system and identify specific and general causes. The data were analyzed in SPSS software (version 24). Results: A total of 64 mortalities occurred in the period under review. According to the Haddon Matrix analysis, environmental factors had the greatest impact in the Pre-event phase (41.6%); nevertheless, human factors had the greatest impact in the Event phase (62%) and the Post-event phase (46.8%). Conclusions: Given that road traffic accidents are the leading cause of accidents and unintentional injuries in Iran, with a rate of 38.3%, it is necessary to enhance safety-related knowledge and skills, develop safe streets and roads, ensure child safety in cars, and promote safe vehicle use. As for the regulatory bodies, enforcing strict driving rules and regulations, providing necessary monitoring and control, and facilitating access to emergency centers should be the top priorities.

Food safety knowledge and risk perception among pregnant women: A cross-sectional study in Jordan during the COVID-19 pandemic

BackgroundPregnant women are at a higher risk of food poisoning compared to the general population. This can be detrimental to both the mother and the fetus. This study aimed to assess the level of knowledge and risk perception of basic food safety and handling among pregnant women in Jordan amid the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsA descriptive cross-sectional quantitative study among pregnant women in Jordan was conducted using an online questionnaire between November 2020 and January 2021. The survey included socio-demographic data, food safety knowledge, and risk perception questions as well as COVID-19 related questions. A total score for food safety awareness out of 50 was derived for each participant based on the sum of scores from all domains. Student t-test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were conducted using SPSS (Version 26) to compare the mean sum of correct responses of every section (knowledge score) by sociodemographic characteristics.ResultsA total of 325 participants completed the web-based survey. Most of the participants reported receiving food safety-related information during pregnancy (64.9%). The mean total score for the participants was 23.3 ± 4.6 out of 50 (score percentage 46.6%). Participants were mostly aware of foodborne diseases (82.7%) followed by cleaning and sanitation (51.2%), and personal hygiene (49.1%). The least amount of awareness was observed in the cross-contamination (35.0%), food consumption and safety (35.0%), and temperature control (32.8%) domains. Older participants and those with higher education had significantly higher mean scores (p < 0.001). Most participants agreed that the pandemic had a positive impact on enhancing the measures taken to maintain food safety during the pandemic.ConclusionsThis study identified gaps in food safety-related knowledge. Educational programs for pregnant women need robust reinforcement within the community. Efficient educational approaches related to food safety should be provided by health care providers and local health authorities. While the COVID-19 pandemic persists, pregnant women must be well-educated about the virus and its prevention strategies to avoid being infected and ensure their baby's safety as well as their own.

Food safety perspectives and practices of consumers and vendors in Nigeria: A review

The purpose of this review is to explore prior research on the food safety perspectives and practices of consumers and vendors in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country. Through a systematic search and review process, 87 relevant studies were identified. The results of the review indicated that most studies were concentrated in urban areas and in the southwest, south, and central regions. Most of the studies (64.4%) focused only on vendors; only one study focused on both consumers and vendors. The most common food category studied was prepared ready-to-eat foods, and 81% of studies did not focus on any specific food safety hazard, instead examining general food safety issues. Sixty studies (69%) used a single data-collection method, most commonly an individual-level structured survey. In terms of topics, most studies focused on the respondent's food safety-related knowledge (66.7%) or self-reported practices (63.2%). Eleven studies (12.6%) examined actual practices via observations, while nine (10.3%) included observations of the food preparation or sale environment. Studies tended to find participants' knowledge to be better than their self-reported practices, with observed practices being worse than self-reported practices. Studies suffered from certain methodological weaknesses. Based on the results of this review, it is concluded that future research on food safety in Nigeria would benefit from greater focus on fruits and vegetables and traditional markets, less reliance on closed-ended survey questions and self-reported data, and more focus on understanding individuals' food safety motivations, beliefs, and values within specific cultural contexts.

Evaluation of parental education using biomechanical visualization to increase child restraint use in China

IntroductionDespite demonstrated effectiveness of child restraint system (CRS), its use in China is extremely low due to the lack of national legislation requiring the use of CRS, as well as lack of child passenger safety knowledge among caregivers. Implementing an effective intervention is urgently needed to promote the use of CRS. In this study, we primarily evaluated the effectiveness of biomechanical visualization delivered in the context of CRS education to promote CRS use. MethodsWe conducted a cluster randomised controlled trial to test the effects of educational intervention programs on increased use of CRS. Participants included caregivers from 8 pre-schools located in two cities (i.e., Chaozhou and Shantou) in China. Following a baseline survey, 8 pre-schools were randomly assigned into 1 of 4 groups with 2 schools in each group: 1) CRS education-only, 2) CRS education with behavioral skill training, 3) CRS education with biomechanical visualization, and 4) control. The primary outcome was CRS use, and the secondary outcomes included scores of child passenger safety-related knowledge and CRS use-related attitudes. The effect of the intervention was assessed among caregivers at two time points: baseline preintervention and 6 months postintervention. ResultsMore than 70% caregivers had never used CRS at baseline. No statistically significant between-group differences CRS use were observed at baseline preintervention (34.2%, 25.4%, 29.6% and 21.9%, respectively, P = 0.18). However, compared to the control group, odds of CRS non-use was significantly lower in caregivers assigned to the CRS education with biomechanical visualization (adjusted odd ratio (AOR) = 0.11, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.07–0.17), CRS education with behavioral skill training (AOR = 0.15, 95%CI = 0.10–0.24) and CRS education-only (AOR = 0.26, 95%CI = 0.17–0.41) groups, respectively. Statistically significant differences were also observed in the secondary outcomes postintervention across groups. Specifically, the CRS education with biomechanical visualization and CRS education with behavioral skill training groups had higher mean knowledge change scores than the CRS education-only group (3.3 ± 1.5 vs. 2.9 ± 2.2, p = 0.035 and 3.2 ± 1.9 vs. 2.9 ± 2.2, p = 0.039, respectively). We also observed a significantly higher increase in the attitudes scores in the CRS education with biomechanical visualization group compared with the CRS education-only group (4.7 ± 2.1 vs. 3.5 ± 2.8,p = 0.026). ConclusionsThis study shows that both biomechanical visualization and behavioral skill training supplements to education improved understanding of CRS knowledge compared to education only, and all three strategies led to increased CRS use. Importantly, CRS education with biomechanical visualization was shown to be more effective than CRS education alone in improving caregiver’s knowledge and attitudes. The use of biomechanical visualization may be an effective supplement to traditional education programs.

Assessment of Level of Awareness Towards Radiation Protection Among the Staff Working at Angiography Suite at Public Hospitals

Introduction Several challenges with radiation protection and safety culture in radiology departments needs to be addressed as few studies done in this aspect in our country. Especially with regard to the awareness about radiation protection, hazards, dosimetry usage and measurement. Objective The objective of this study is to find knowledge about radiation exposure hazard and practices among various auxiliary staff working in radiation units. Material and Methods Cross-sectional study done by using stratified random sampling method. A questionnaire made to check the awareness level of the radiological staff regarding radiation protection working in angiography suite. The questionnaire had two parts with various questions about radiation protection measures and safety related knowledge for staff and patient. Data collected from angiography suite of three public sector hospitals of Lahore, Pakistan. All the data entered in statistical package for the social science (SSPS) version 16 and analyzed for statistically significant outcomes. Results Total of 67 staff members were included in this study from three different public sector hospitals, 55.2% were males 44.77% were females. Twenty-nine (29) persons belonged to the age group of 20-30-years. Twenty (20) doctors, 21 nurses, 12 radiographers and 14 paramedical staff were included. 89.55% staff members were aware of radiation hazard. 55.22% had training on radiation protection and 44.77%. 56.71% were aware of dosimeter. Only 16% were aware of as low as reasonably achievable (ALARA). Conclusion The radiological staff members were partially aware about radiation hazards and radiation safety. They were lacking from training and workshops. Essential steps required to develop nationwide strategies for improving the situation and maintaining a safe working environment.

Nursing Students' Informal Learning of Patient Safety Management Activities.

Nursing students require experience in patient safety management to prevent accidents that compromise patient safety. This study examined the mediating effects of informal learning on nursing students’ patient safety management activities. Responses to questionnaires issued to 136 nursing students in South Korea were analyzed. The independent, mediating, and dependent variables used were nursing competencies, informal learning, and patient safety management activities, respectively. Concept validity and model fitness were confirmed using average variance extracted and composite reliability. Model fitness was confirmed using the goodness-of-fit index, normed fit index, Tucker–Lewis index, comparative fit index, and standardized root mean squared residual. The mediating effect was analyzed using the maximum likelihood method, and statistical significance was assessed through bootstrapping. Informal learning mediated the relationship between nursing competence and patient safety management activities. To improve the implementation of patient safety management activities and increase patient safety competence, learning and teaching of specific patient safety-related knowledge, skills, and attitudes need to be improved. For this, informal learning opportunities (e.g., simulation education and clinical practice) must be increased in the nursing curriculum, and the patient safety education capacity should be increased to maintain continuity and connectivity in clinical practice.

Epvmp: Enhanced Probabilistic Based Vehicular Multi-Hop Strategies Protocol For Crisis In Vanets Broadcasting

Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) transmission is utilized for most security-related programs targeting Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs) to disseminate safety-related knowledge to nearby cars. However, the traditional broadcasting networks have broadcast winds, contributing to intolerable pauses in transmission and loss of packets. This paper proposes an important transmission scheme for distributing protection signals throughout the sensitive region called the Enhanced Probabilistic-based Vehicular Multi-hop Strategies Protocol (EPVMP). Second, by utilizing the index number of a node and other criteria, which are distinct from the current likelihood-based methods, we aim to provide nodes outside the source node with a higher forwarding chance. The parameters may be optimized for a higher likelihood of transmitting performance and preserving the message distribution's necessary efficiency. Second, we suggest a clustering framework such that problems of replication and latency may be substantially decreased. Third, we evaluate the procedure's efficiency, such as the forwarding completion rate, the total number of copies, and the average latency of one jump. Extensive simulation outcomes with substantially increased network efficiency have shown the feasibility of the proposed protocol

The knowledge, attitude and practice of hospital pharmacists on the safety issues of antitumor agents for the patients discharged in China.

BackgroundPatient safety is a serious global public health concern, especially for those patients undergoing chemotherapy. The purpose of this pilot study was to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice among hospital pharmacists in China towards the safety issues of antitumor agents for the patients discharged.MethodsThe pilot study was processed using an online questionnaire targeting hospital pharmacists in China. Ten, five and four questions were used to investigate pharmacists’ knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) respectively.ResultsA total of 360 questionnaires by pharmacists out of 412 (87.4%) were qualified and enrolled. It was found that 58.7% were familiar with safety-related knowledge; 32.2% believed that safety risks exist and 85.3% were willing to provide medication education to patients with cancer who take medication at home after discharge; 91.4%have sometimes taken the initiative to promote safety-related knowledge to their patients.ConclusionsThe research firstly provided some insights into the hospital pharmacists’ KAP regarding the safety issues of antitumor agents for patients with cancer discharged in China. Attention should be paid to the knowledge of pharmacists, the awareness of the safety risks of patients with cancer who take medication at home after discharge, and the accessibility to consult with pharmacists after discharge.

Influence of knowledge-based safety culture in the construction industry: a stakeholder's perspective

PurposeSafety in construction projects is essential and requires more attention towards minimizing the accident rate. Problems concerning awareness of safety risks, procedures and practices still exist in the industry, which indicate a shortfall in diffusion of safety-related knowledge in construction industry. Also, there is dearth of studies on knowledge management strategies to prevent reoccurrence of accidents and thereby improve safety culture in construction industry. This study attempts to unveil aspects of knowledge management that are ignored in considering safety culture and discern the differences in the perception of key stakeholders of construction industry. Therefore, the objective of this study is to identify and measure knowledge-based safety culture elements.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper, the focus is on the application of a reliable, valid and sensitive knowledge-based safety culture assessment tool on key stakeholders operational in construction industry. Research method adopted is a questionnaire-based survey to seek responses from industry professionals. A total of 199 responses were obtained from 106 different companies operational in Indian construction industry. Statistical analyses including ranking analysis, t-test, correlation analysis, and ANOVA test are utilized for comparing and identifying the differences in view of stakeholder's perceptions concerning workplace safety.FindingsThis study helps to identify and rank critical knowledge-based safety culture elements from the perspective of key stakeholders of construction industry. This contributes in identifying the most critical and neglected variables among the key stakeholders regarding aspects of safety culture. Also, the study shows the importance of knowledge dimension in developing overall safety culture in construction industry.Originality/valueResults of this study offer valuable insight in enabling key stakeholders of construction industry to examine and enhance their safety performance. The implications of this study contribute new knowledge in assessing conditions that will improve worker safety in the construction industry. The paper should be of interest to researchers and practitioners in the area of occupational health and safety management.

Outcomes of a Safety and Health Educational Intervention in Auto Body and Machine Tool Technologies Vocational College Programs: The Technical Education Curricula for Health and Safety (TECHS) Study.

Technical Education Curricula for Health and Safety (TECHS) is a research collaboration between safety and health professionals and vocational instructors in three Minnesota colleges. Curriculum materials, including full and refresher modules with of classroom presentations, lab activities, homework, and quizzes, were developed for auto body collision technology (ABCT) and machine tool technology (MTT) programs. Curricula were implemented during the 2015-2018 academic years. Graduates' safety-related knowledge, skills, work practices, and workplace safety climate were assessed 1 year postgraduation using an electronic survey. Responses were received from 71 ABCT and 115 MTT graduates. Classroom presentations were used consistently throughout the study. Instructors cited a lack of time as the main barrier to using other materials (lab activities, homework, and quizzes). Graduates with TECHS instruction had significantly greater safety-related knowledge overall (both trades) as well as in two topic areas: eye and respiratory protection (ABCT) and hearing protection and machine guarding (MTT). Our data confirm that nearly all graduates consistently engage in practices such as use of safety glasses, hearing protection, and respirators, use of machine guards, material handling strategies. At 1 year postgraduation, MTT graduates' work practices related to machine guarding improved significantly. Graduates with TECHS instruction had improved in about half of the work practices, but statistical significance was not achieved. Graduates' self-reported work practices were not significantly correlated with their knowledge or skills. Work practices variability was best explained by graduates' attitudes toward safety rules and their rating of the workplace safety climate. TECHS findings confirm that classroom instruction alone has little impact on graduates' work practices. We propose institutions formalize their commitment to safety and health education by ear-marking teaching time for this subject and providing assistance to instructors to facilitate curricula integration. Instructors would benefit from learning more about trade-specific safety and health, and adult education teaching methods. Additional research is needed to understand how students' attitudes toward safety change during vocational college attendance and the first year of employment in the trade, explore implementation supports and barriers at institutional and instructor levels, and assess educational effectiveness beyond the end of the academic program. The entire curricula are available on the study website www.votechsafety.net.

Design and Development of a Safety Educational Adventure Game

The lack of effective safety education training in curriculum design could expose children to serious safety accidents both in schools and at homes in China. To highlight the importance of safety education, this study was intended to design and implement an adventure video game (AVG) on mobile devices, hoping to improve children’s safety knowledge and skills through interactive gameplay. The proposed AVG app situated children in real dangerous circumstances through roleplaying and then engaged them in learning safety re-lated knowledge through case scenarios. To balance the entertainment and edu-tainment of the game, this app integrated theories of game design and child de-velopment to support its design rationale, including interface interaction and game badges. This app was evaluated through interviews and video analysis so that later improvements were made according to feedback from participants, parents and experts.

Food safety related knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) among the students from nursing, education and medical college in Chongqing, China

This study aims to examine the food safety knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) among the students from nursing, education and medical colleges. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 3454 college students in Chongqing, China in 2016. On food safety knowledge, the medical students scored the highest (10.29 ± 2.54) and the nursing students scored the lowest (8.51 ± 2.56). On food safety attitudes, the education students scored the highest (40.07 ± 5.88) and the medical students scored the lowest (39.53 ± 5.34). On food safety practices, the education students scored the highest (27.06 ± 4.59) and the nursing students scored the lowest (24.66 ± 4.82). The differences on food safety KAP scores among three school categories were all statistically significant (p < 0.05). The percentages of correct responses of nursing, education and medical students on “Frozen foods should be thawed in refrigerators”, “Shelf life means the period in which prepackaging foods maintain quality” and “Spices and flavors can be used in milk” were lower than 50%. More than 70% of the students were concerned or very concerned about pesticide residues in vegetables, the veterinary drug residue of meat, the heavy metal pollution of food and the transfer of plasticizers in food containers and packaging materials. More than 80% of the students were willing to improve their knowledge of food safety and to change their inappropriate food safety practices. Almost 30.0% of the students often or always asked businesses to deal with or complaints to the relevant departments when encountered with food safety problems. About 40.0% of the students often or always stored food according to the food labels. The multivariable analyses indicated that the school category was associated with food safety knowledge and practices scores. Compared with those who did not pay attention to food safety information through We-media, those who paid had higher scores on food safety KAP. In conclusion, college students were very concerned about some food safety problems, and they had inadequate knowledge and inappropriate practices toward food safety. More effective food safety interventions should be conducted among nursing, education and medical students. The role of We-media in food safety intervention needs further study.

Tackling Ambulatory Safety Risks Through Patient Engagement: What 10,000 Patients and Families Say About Safety-Related Knowledge, Behaviors, and Attitudes After Reading Visit Notes.

Ambulatory safety risks including delayed diagnoses or missed abnormal test results are difficult for clinicians to see, because they often occur in the space between visits. Experts advocate greater patient engagement to improve safety, but strategies are limited. Patient access to clinical notes ("OpenNotes") may help close the safety gap between visits. We surveyed patients and families who logged on to the patient portal and had at least one ambulatory note available in the past 12 months at two academic hospitals during June to September 2016, focusing on patient-reported effects of OpenNotes on safety knowledge, behaviors, and attitudes. A total of 6913 (28%) of 24,722 patients at an adult hospital and 3672 (17%) of 21,579 participants at the children's hospital submitted surveys. Approximately 75% of patients and parents each reported that reading notes helped them understand the reason for both tests and referrals, and approximately 50% felt that it helped them complete tests and referrals. Roughly 75% of participants were more likely to check and understand test results. Overall, 97% of participants reported that trust in the provider, activation, patient-provider goal alignment, and teamwork were each better or the same after reading 1 note or more. Nonwhite participants and those with high school education or less were 30% to 50% more likely to report that reading notes helped them complete tests compared with white and more educated respondents, respectively. Overall, the majority of more than 10,000 patients and parents reported reading notes helped them understand and follow through on tests and referrals. As information transparency spreads, OpenNotes can help activate patients and families, facilitate safety behaviors, and forge stronger partnerships with clinicians.

Making the invisible visible

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the potential to use infographics to capture, represent and communicate important information to construction designers, such that it improves their ability to understand the implications of design choices for construction workers’ health and safety.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on information obtained through a photographic Q-sort, supplemented with a literature review, health and safety information related to the design of a façade was collected from subject matter experts. This information was used to develop infographics representing the subject matter knowledge. A facilitated workshop was then held with 20 design professionals to engage them in a hazard identification process using a case study scenario. The designers were provided with the infographics and asked to comment upon how the infographics changed their assessments of the health and safety risks inherent in the case study building design. A sub-set of participants was interviewed to explore their perceptions of the impact and usefulness of the inforgraphics.FindingsInfographics were developed at different levels of detail, representing potential health and safety issues associated with the site location and surroundings, the construction site environment and the detailed façade design. Workshop participants identified a number of potential health and safety issues associated with the case study scenario. However, this number increased substantially once they had viewed the infographic. Further, the health and safety issues identified when participants had access to the infographic were more likely to be less visible issues, relating to ergonomic hazards, procurement or the organisation and sequencing of work. The workshop participants who were interviewed described how the infographics enabled them to make a more global assessment of the health and safety implications of the case study building design because it helped them to understand the design in the physical construction site context. Participants also favoured the visual nature of the infographics and suggested that this format may be particularly useful to communicate important health and safety information to novice designers with limited on-site experience.Research limitations/implicationsThe infographics developed in this research were relatively simple two-dimensional representations produced and presented in hard copy format. It is possible that more sophisticated forms of infographic could have produced different results. Thus, it is important that future research develops different types of infographics and rigorously evaluates their effectiveness in developing designers’ health and safety-related knowledge and improving decision making.Practical implicationsThe results indicate that simple infographics can help design professionals to better understand the health and safety implications of design decisions in the context of the construction site environment. In particular, the infographics appear to have increased designers’ ability to recognize less visible health and safety-related issues. The designers interviewed also described the potential usefulness of the infographics in design workshops as a tool to stimulate discussion and develop a shared understanding of the health and safety aspects of a particular design decision or choice.Originality/valueThe value of the research lies in the development and evaluation of infographics as a tool supports the integration of health and safety into design decision making. The potential to develop these tools into digital or web-based resources is also significant.

Process Safety in Engineering Education - Pro's and Con's of Different Approaches

At some universities process engineering graduates quit having heard little or even nothing about process safety. Consequently, in their professional live they have two options to tackle process safety issues: training on-the-job or leaving process safety issues entirely to specialists or external consultants.Firstly, the question arises what might be an optimum level of safety-related knowledge to be taken up during chemical and process engineering university programmes.Secondly, the professional profile of the Health, and Environment (HSE) Manager is discussed. HSE managers in industry have to cover a wide range of different items ranging from occupational safety and health to hazardous materials management and environmental protection including even legal problems. Hence, they have to be all-rounders with a good engineering background, but inevitably they will have limited knowledge concerning details of process safety.In this case the question is, if this professional profile is matching the needs of an increasingly specialised production.Thirdly, there is a need of a - certainly not excessive - number of specialists in process safety with in-depth knowledge on hazard analysis, risk and consequences assessment, safety data testing and design and application of protection measures.Currently, such experts - at least as far as Germany is concerned - are not available right after graduation. The author discusses the different strategies how the demands of the three options mentioned can be considered in process engineering university programmes. Special emphasis is given to an education profile provided by ProcessNet some years ago, to the consecutive bachelor and master program Safety and Hazard Defence offered (in German language) cooperatively at the two universities in Magdeburg, Germany, and to a new master programme in English language under development. The paper also highlights eleven years of experience with the course offered in German and the feedback from former graduates.

Ontology-based semantic modeling of construction safety knowledge: Towards automated safety planning for job hazard analysis (JHA)

Construction safety related knowledge and project specific information are scattered and fragmented. Despite technological advancements of information and knowledge management in the building and construction industry, a link between safety management and information models is still missing. The objective of this study is to investigate a new approach to organize, store and re-use construction safety knowledge. A construction safety ontology is proposed to formalize the safety management knowledge. It consists of three main domain ontology models, including Construction Product Model, Construction Process Model, and Construction Safety Model. One-on-one expert interviews were conducted for ontology evaluation. The interaction between safety ontology and Building Information Modeling (BIM) is also explored. A prototype application of ontology-based job hazard analysis (JHA) and visualization is implemented to further illustrate the applicability and effectiveness of the developed ontology. The developed construction safety ontology enables more effective inquiry of safety knowledge, which is the first step towards automated safety planning for JHA using BIM.

Improving Safety-Related Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Nurses Handling Cytotoxic Anticancer Drug: Pharmacists' Experience in a General Hospital, Malaysia

An increasing trend of cytotoxic drug use, mainly in cancer treatment, has increased the occupational exposure among the nurses. This study aimed to assess the change of nurses' safety-related knowledge as well as attitude levels and subsequently to assess the change of cytotoxic drug handling practices in wards after a series of pharmacist-based interventions. This prospective interventional study with a before and after design requested a single group of 96 nurses in 15 wards actively providing chemotherapy to answer a self-administered questionnaire. A performance checklist was then used to determine the compliance of all these wards with the recommended safety measures. The first and second assessments took 2 months respectively with a 9-month intervention period. Pharmacist-based interventions included a series of technical, educational and administrative support measures consisting of the initiation of closed-system cytotoxic drug reconstitution (CDR) services, courses, training workshops and guideline updates. The mean age of nurses was 32.2∓6.19 years. Most of them were female (93.8%) and married (72.9%). The mean knowledge score of nurses was significantly increased from 45.5∓10.52 to 73.4∓8.88 out of 100 (p<0.001) at the end of the second assessment. Overall, the mean practice score among the wards was improved from 7.6∓5.51 to 15.3∓2.55 out of 20 (p<0.001). The pharmacist-based interventions improved the knowledge, attitude and safe practices of nurses in cytotoxic drug handling. Further assessment may help to confirm the sustainability of the improved practices.

Warfarin Use Post Hospitalization: Pilot Comparative Effectiveness of Telephone Follow-Up

This study's aims were to evaluate patient knowledge of safe warfarin practices early in treatment, and to pilot a nursing telephone follow-up enhancement to a pharmacy-facilitated discharge. Forty-two randomized patients in either "enhanced follow-up" or "treatment as usual" groups completed the study. Enhanced treatment resulted in significant improvement in warfarin knowledge (86% versus 71%). In critical safety related knowledge questions even larger improvements were present (∼96% compared to ∼77%). The hypothesis that non-adherence generating rehospitalization is a function of poorer knowledge was not supported as there were no warfarin-related readmissions during the study. The study supports the use of enhanced follow up and the need for larger studies to delineate what patient knowledge prevents rehospitalization and cost effective educational efforts.