Occupational Safety and Health Training for Undergraduates Nursing Students: A Spanish Pilot

• Published in: International journal of environmental research and public health Vol. 17; no. 22; p. 8381
• Main Authors: Vaquero-Álvarez, Esther, Cubero-Atienza, Antonio, Martínez-Jiménez, María Pilar, Vaquero-Abellán, Manuel, Redel-Macías, María Dolores, Aparicio-Martínez, Pilar
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 12.11.2020; MDPI
• Subjects: Blended learning; Classrooms; COVID-19; Distance learning; Education; Education, Medical, Undergraduate - standards; Education, Nursing - standards; Educational research; Gamification; Health care; Humans; Integration; Knowledge; Kruskal-Wallis test; Laboratories; Medical personnel; Nursing; Nursing education; Occupational exposure; Occupational Health - education; Occupational safety; Occupational training; Online instruction; Online tutorials; Pathogens; Prevention; Prospective Studies; Social networks; Software; Spain; Students; Students, Nursing; Teaching; Variance analysis; Virtual reality; Workers; Spain; prevention culture; web platform; continuous training; nursing students
• ISSN: 1660-4601; 1661-7827; 1660-4601
• DOI: 10.3390/ijerph17228381

Most of blood borne and airborne pathogens are highly contagious, harmful and have prevalence among healthcare workers. In this group, healthcare students, especially nursing undergraduates, have even higher risk to be exposed and suffered a contagious accident. One of the main pillars to prevent exposure to such pathogens and decrease accidents seems to be through education. A prospective observational educational research focused on quantifying the students' knowledge, and prevention culture was carried out. The educational approach based on the development of a technological tool, its integration in the students' education, and posterior assessment. The Chi-square, ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis, Man-Whitney U, and Spearman correlations were used to determine the effect of such educational methodology. The results, previous to the integration of the educational approach, showed differences between the elementary and proficient knowledge and correct procedure in each academic year ( < 0.05), being the best year the third academic year. The mean of elementary knowledge among second year students after the inclusion of the educational methodology improved for 2017/2018 with a mean of 7.5 (1.11) and in 2018/2019 with 7.87 (1.34). This study argued that the educational approach proposed could improve the prevention culture and knowledge among students and future healthcare professionals.