Western Mining Safety and Health Training Resource Center: Evidence-Based Learning Laboratories

Details

• Personal Author:
  Brown LD ; Burgess J
• Description:
  The Western Mining Safety and Health Training Resource Center (Center) at the University of Arizona works to improve miner safety and health by developing, evaluating, and sharing training resources, and by facilitating educational partnerships among industry, academia, and government. A key activity of the Center is to promote active learning during training, which is much more effective than passive methods like lectures, slides, or videos. In collaboration with numerous industry partners, the Center has developed a collection of active learning handbooks, computer-based "serious games", mobile apps, training clinics, and data products that address the diversity of trainer needs, capabilities, and classroom requirements. New health training has also been developed to enhance worker awareness and competency on critical public health topics, such as environmental exposure conditions, including dust, noise, and heat stress, as well as worker wellness. Furthermore, during the last phase of our program, the Center's reach greatly expanded and now incorporates over 20 partnering mine operators in 15 Western US states; training and training resources were provided to over 16,000 miners during this phase, through courses that included professional development, supervisory training, and exercise programs, in addition to the MSHA-mandated safety and health training (i.e., 723 total courses). These activities have resulted in positive changes to workplace safety culture, worker competency, and safety and health outcomes in the mining industry. Changes in training and safety culture. Mine operators now recognize the value of active learning and the added capabilities of our technology-based training resources, making them more willing to invest resources in these initiatives as a step toward sustainable improvements in their workers' safety and health. For example, two mine operators recently transitioned from lecture-based to hands-on training methods after surveying our resources and training programs. After observing the capabilities of computer-based serious games, seven operators recently deployed serious games in their new miner training. The use of our computer-based games increased 4x, to over 3,000 miners, during the last phase of our Center. Improvement in worker competency. Workers have demonstrated improvements in knowledge and safety competency using our active learning resources, as measured with post-test assessments. For example, in studies with seven groups of miners (148 miners in total), there were substantial improvements in their ability to recognize hazards - as high as 50% for some hazard types - when using computer-based serious games. Improvement in S&H outcomes. Case studies of our training interventions have indicated reductions in both the frequency and severity of workplace injuries. For example, a partnering worksite reported decreases in average injuries and days lost at 23.6% and 72.5%, respectively. This outcome compares favorably to the 100% increase and 27.7% decrease in the same measures, respectively, at the operator's other worksites, which were not using our training programs. Average reductions in days lost exceeded 60% across all operators using our programs - a favorable outcome versus the sector trend, which showed only a marginal reduction of 3.6% over the period. Collectively, the Center's efforts have resulted in an increased number of miners who are better able to translate their training knowledge to competent practices in the workplace and increased the sharing of highly effective active learning materials across mine operators and sectors, leading to reductions in accidents, injuries, and fatalities. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Mining Occupational Health Safety Staff Development
• Keywords:
  Information Dissemination Injury Prevention Mine Safety Mining Industry Partnership 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:
  Arizona ; OSHA Region 9
• 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:20069465
• 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, U60-OH-010014, 2023 Dec; :1-17
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2024
• NORA Priority Area:
  Mining
• Performing Organization:
  University of Arizona, Tucson
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20100901
• Source Full Name:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• End Date:
  20260831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:e10359553403d85ecefeb68c3d41891bdc19a090abad2a70356a50d5ebc4197f9110211906e2c0a41d339f6a0d42ae99ed5e81967f9e3d7f24a50030a5d3d405
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/219227/cdc_219227_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 343.22 KB ]