VEHICLE ARTISAN ACCESSIBILITY TO BASIC FIRST AID AND HUGIENE PRACTICES AT SUAME MAGAZINE, GHANA
Keywords:
vehicle artisans, basic first aid, hygiene practices, Suame MagazineAbstract
Vehicle repair artisans are engaged in a profession with high levels of occupational health hazards and workplace injuries which can impact employees. The activities of vehicle repairs artisans expose them to a number of risks and workplace hazards. The relevance of first aid equipment and sanitary facilities cannot be overlooked among artisans in auto-mobile garages. Therefore, the absence of basic firefighting and safety equipment such as extinguishers and fire alarms in the shops coupled with lack of training on fire management among the artisans, pose a huge threat to human life and properties in the workstation. The use of water, leaves, and sand to put out fires in cases of fire outbreaks does not provide an adequate fire protection mechanism in the shops. A cross sectional study by design and analytical by type was adopted for the research, and utilized both quantitative and qualitative approaches. A total of 233 interviewees were randomly selected employing a stratified random sampling technique from 3 units of welders, sprayers and mechanics. Data was analyzed into a descriptive and inferential statistics at p<0.05 using STATA vs 14.0 software. All the artisans sampled were male with a mean age of 32.28. Persons between the age brackets of 18-37 years constituted the majority. More than half (59.23%) of the artisans had junior high school education. Fire extinguishers (79.4%), first aid boxes (82.4%), rest rooms (54.51%), and showers (92.7%) were mostly unavailable. The findings further showed that although (82.4%) artisans upheld to regular hand washing with soap at the workplace, it was not done properly to intentionally remove grease and deposits beneath the finger nails from observation made. The study concludes that, there is non-availability of basic first aids and sanitary amenities in the automobile workshop. Similarly, hand washing by artisans was not done properly to intentionally remove grease and deposits of dirt beneath the finger nails from observation made. Artisans are either unenlightened or indifferent about the dangers and health implication of poor hand hygiene.
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Copyright (c) 2023 MAGDALENE PHILIP UMOH, JOHN HUMPHREY AMUASI, ABIGAIL OWUSU GYAMFI, ABRAHAM ISIAKA JIMMY, JAMES FALLAH, PAUL ANDREW BOURNE, TABITHA MUCHEE
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