Health Promotion Practice
Volume 18, Issue 4, 2017, Pages 505-515

Applying Learning Theory to Safety and Health Training for Hispanic Immigrant Dairy Workers (Article)

Juárez-Carrillo P.M.* , Liebman A.K. , Reyes I.A.C. , Ninco Sánchez Y.V. , Keifer M.C.
  • a University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX, United States
  • b Migrant Clinicians Network, Salisbury, MD, United States
  • c Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation, Marshfield, WI, United States
  • d Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation, Marshfield, WI, United States
  • e VA Puget Sound Medical Center, Seattle, WA, United States

Abstract

We designed a safety and health curriculum for dairy immigrant workers aiming to increase knowledge, encourage safe behavior, and reduce worker communication inequalities to prevent occupational injury and diseases. The design is largely based on the Taxonomy of Significant Learning and incorporated behavioral and adult learning theories and principles of occupational hazard control. Trainings were implemented with 836 Spanish-speaking workers from 67 farms in Wisconsin. Sixty-seven percent of workers reported never being trained before in dairy safety, 65% of these worked in dairy for 5 or fewers years, and 26% of workers reported being ever injured while working on dairy. Quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the trainings suggest that our curriculum successfully increased worker knowledge and promoted contemplation of safe practices. The overall knowledge gain of 25% was statistically significant (p <.01). Workers recalled at least one key concept, expressed confidence of adopting at least one safety behavior, and mentioned their intention to communicate safety concerns to farmers. To our knowledge, this is the first Taxonomy of Significant Learning application to occupational safety and health education. Our curriculum can support dairy farmers’ compliance with Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s annual training requirements by providing our basic safety and health training to workers at early job stages. © 2016, © 2016 Society for Public Health Education.

Author Keywords

Hispanic occupational injury and health Immigrant active participatory learning dairy farm Bilingual curriculum Spanish-speaking Training Worker Safety Injury prevention

Index Keywords

education human middle aged Hispanic Americans knowledge Safety Management United States Young Adult Humans migrant occupational accident Hispanic Adolescent Occupational Injuries male Emigrants and Immigrants United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration female safety Dairying standards organization and management adult government in service training Inservice Training occupational health

Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85021124743&doi=10.1177%2f1524839916683668&partnerID=40&md5=bda06b28cae84d1ed922f0d26ae411b5

DOI: 10.1177/1524839916683668
ISSN: 15248399
Cited by: 9
Original Language: English