Effectiveness of Computer-Based Safety Training in Vineyard Workers

Details

• Personal Author:
  Anger WK ; Garside L ; Rohlman DS
• Description:
  Many agricultural workers have migrated to the US with a limited educational and cultural background to succeed and work safely in the US. While most have completed only 6 years of education, half have less than 6 years and some have not completed any schooling at all. Therefore, industry may utilize on-the-job training (OJT) for these immigrant workers rather than formal training that may be considered to be too challenging. While OJT is preferred for teaching how to adapt specific skills to a workplace, structured formal training provides more consistent expert information than OJT for most topics, especially safety. Therefore, this project sought to test the hypothesis that well-designed computer-based training (CBT) could be used to teach basic safety knowledge, routine skills and skills required for advancement in an agricultural workforce, and teach it as effectively as reported in other better educated populations. To ensure that the training met the needs of the workforce, community-based participatory research was employed to develop training that melded work skills and safety for Oregon's vineyard industry. The partners were Oregon Health and Science University, Tuality HealthCare ¡Salud! Services and several Oregon vineyards. The project was guided by an Advisory Committee consisting of vineyard executives, vineyard managers, vineyard workers, academics and community partners. The training (a) established basic knowledge (employee orientation, Worker Protection Standard, Hazard Communication), (b) seasonal safety fundamentals and work skills, and (c) improved promotion potential (supervisor skills, pesticide applicator knowledge). Members of the Advisory Committee selected the topics, gave interviews to describe the basic information to develop each topic, and provided the setting and supported volunteers on paid work time for pilot testing of the training and to evaluate the training's effectiveness in the vineyards. Community partner ¡Salud! ensured recruitment participation by supporting the project with the vineyard organizations and their workers. The training content was delivered by cTRAIN, a computer-based training (CBT) system founded on behavioral principles, included a spoken text option, and provided user instructions developed for the target audience, all in Spanish and English. The participants, who were all experienced vineyard or orchard workers, learned from the training based on improvement pre- to post-training tests, and the majority of both employers and participants rated the training as very good to excellent. Knowledge and work practices in these experienced workers began high and showed improvement. When measured, work practices changed following the training recommendations. These changes were statistically significant and had large effect sizes (d over 0.8) in participants who had a mean of 6 years of education or less. Turning to the specific topics, training of basic skills and safety showed improvement, though beginning at a high baseline. Based on re-testing at 5 months following initial training on the Worker Protection Standard (WPS), the repeat training required by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) every 5 years was demonstrated to be too long. Improvement was also seen in learning of complex training topics, including pesticide applicator knowledge (a 1200-screen training program) and behavioral supervisor skills. After completing the full series of training topics, many participants and all employers requested a continuation of the training. Both the repetition of some topics and the addition of new topics were requested, supporting their ratings and enthusiasm for targeted, well-designed training. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Agriculture Behavior Emigration And Immigration Farmers Hazardous Substances Occupational Health Safety Software Staff Development
• Keywords:
  Agricultural Workers Behavior Patterns Computer Software Farm Workers Hazard Communication Migrant Workers Safety Education Training
• Series:
  Grant Final Reports
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Final Cooperative Agreement Report
• Place as Subject:
  Oregon ; OSHA Region 10
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  OEP - Office of Extramural Programs
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-17
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20060481
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2021-100197
• Citation:
  Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, U01-OH-008104, 2009 Oct; :1-17
• Contact Point Address:
  W. Kent Anger, PhD (PI), Oregon Health and Science University, CROET L606, 3181 SW Sam Jackson Park Road, Portland, OR 97239
• Email:
  anger@ohsu.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2010
• Performing Organization:
  Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, Oregon
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20030930
• Source Full Name:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• End Date:
  20080929
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:70f6e1774e95fddb06105c6205e243b4173908761f5e74b6dbdd2400d24ecccee69ea24ab598c02bcbc00482b1f711914f28752dcfd2da9188f8b4e8e6d6c4b6
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/218999/cdc_218999_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 338.72 KB ]