A Model for Promoting Occupational Safety and Health in Taiwan's Hospitals: An Integrative Approach

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019 Mar 11;16(5):882. doi: 10.3390/ijerph16050882.

Abstract

Advocating for improving workplace safety and health has gained substantial support in recent years. The medical industry is a high-risk industry and receives considerable public attention. This study used an integrative approach as a starting point and combined the contextual factors of an organization: perceived organizational support, safety climate, social influence, and shared decision making. Subsequently, the effects of these factors on preventive action and safety satisfaction were investigated. This study surveyed employees of two hospitals, one in Northern Taiwan and one in Eastern Taiwan, collecting valid data from 468 respondents. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to verify our research framework. The finding indicates that (1) All hypotheses proposed in this study were supported. (2) The overall goodness of fit of the model was excellent, and the explained variance of the outcome variables was high. (3) Safety climate had the strongest total effects on preventive action and safety satisfaction simultaneously, whereas preventive action had the strongest direct effect on safety satisfaction. The objective of this study was to obtain empirical conclusions and make suggestions for academic theory and clinical practice. The findings may serve as a reference for future research and for scholars and practitioners, enabling the creation of healthy workplaces and, thus, a brighter future.

Keywords: perceived organizational support; safety climate; shared decision making; social influence.

MeSH terms

  • Health Personnel / standards*
  • Hospitals*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Models, Theoretical
  • Occupational Health*
  • Organizational Culture
  • Surveys and Questionnaires
  • Taiwan
  • Workplace / standards*