Action research : A practical methodology for OHS practitioners
- Authors: Cowley, Stephen , Runnalls, John
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Occupational Health and Safety, Australia and New Zealand Vol. 20, no. 1 (2004), p. 49-58
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- Description: This paper briefly describes action research in the context of the discipline of OHS as it is practised in Australia. It questions the appropriateness and efficacy of positivist research methods for the majority of OHS practitioners, and argues that action research is an alternative methodology that has much to offer OHS practitioners and their organisations. It is a research method that may be the foundation stone of genuine OHS practitioner research, with the potential to bridge the gap between existing knowledge and actual workplace injury and disease prevention, to positively impact on organisational culture, to increase professionalism, and to continuously improve practice - for the benefit of all stakeholders. (author abstract)
- Description: 2003000712
An analysis of the forces required to drag sheep over various surfaces
- Authors: Harvey, Jack , Culvenor, John , Payne, Warren , Cowley, Stephen , Lawrance, Michael , Stuart, David , Williams, Robyn
- Date: 2002
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Applied Ergonomics Vol. 33, no. 6 (Nov 2002), p. 523-531
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- Description: Some occupational health and safety hazards associated with sheep shearing are related to shearing shed design. One aspect is the floor of the catching pen, from which sheep are caught and dragged to the shearing workstation. Floors can be constructed from various materials, and may be level or gently sloping. An experiment was conducted using eight experienced shearers as participants to measure the force exerted by a shearer when dragging a sheep. Results showed that significant changes in mean dragging force occurred with changes in both surface texture and slope. The mean dragging forces for different floor textures and slopes ranged from 359 N (36.6 kg) to 423N (43.2 kg), and were close to the maximum acceptable limits for pulling forces for the most capable of males. The best floor tested was a floor sloped at 1:10 constructed of timber battens oriented parallel to the path of the drag, which resulted in a mean dragging force 63.6N (15%) lower than the worst combination.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003000244
Are health and safety representatives more effective at representing their designated work group having completed a Certificate IV course in OHS?
- Authors: Merriman, Gavin , Cowley, Stephen
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Health and Safety Research and Practice Vol. 1, no. 1 (2009), p. 13-18
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- Description: Some elected Health and Safety Representatives in Australia choose to undertake a Certificate IV level OHS course. To determine if they are more effective at representing their Designated Work Group as a result, a sample population of Health and Safety Representatives and members of their Designated Work Group were surveyed. The survey participants were also tested in regard to their approach to solving health and safety problems posed in three hypothetical workplace scenarios. The results were compared with the results of the same test undertaken by Health and Safety Representatives that had only completed a 5-day training course. As a result of undertaking a Certificate IV OHS program, Health and Safety Representatives have more confidence in undertaking workplace inspections and the frequency and the quality of those inspections is increased. They seek more information from their employer in regard to workplace hazards and are consulted by management more often and also consult with the members of their Designated Work Group more frequently. There were statistically significant differences between responses to the three hypothetical workplace scenarios given by subjects that had undertaken a Certificate IV course and those that had only completed a 5-day training program. The Certificate IV course group were more likely to apply safe place control principles to problems. Together with increased frequency of inspections and greater consultation, this is likely to lead to more effective representation of the DWG.
Concepts of accident causation and their role in safe design among engineering students
- Authors: Hall, Stephen , Culvenor, John , Cowley, Stephen , Else, Dennis
- Date: 2007
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at 18th conference of the Australasian Association for Engineering Education, Melbourne, Victoria : 9th-13th December 2007
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- Description: Safe design is a strong theme at present in Australia. To ‘eliminate hazards at the design stage’ is one of the five national priorities set out by the National OHS Strategy. The Australian Safety and Compensation Council have recently released both a guideline for safe design and an engineering education package. Safe design is not only about engineering decisions. Engineers are however an important group. This paper reports on a survey to evaluate perceptions of student engineers on topics relevant to the advancement of safe design including perceptions of: control versus fatalism; accident causation; and perceptions of the role played by engineers.
- Description: 2003004787
Development of a new scholarly health and safety journal : Editorial
- Authors: Cowley, Stephen
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Health and Safety Research and Practice Vol. 1, no. 1 (2009), p. 1-2
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Evaluation of learning outcomes for the Engineering Resource Package (ERP)
- Authors: Culvenor, John , Cowley, Stephen , Else, Dennis , Hall, Stephen
- Date: 2005
- Type: Text , Report
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- Description: The Australian Safety and Compensation Council recently released "Safe Design for Engineering Students - A Resource Package". This package won the Society of Technical Communication Excellence Award for technical communication. Much of the Resource Package was drawn from The Principles of Safe Design (Culvenor, 2004). The report above was an evaluation of the implementation trial and it lead to the identification of improvements - one which was the inclusion of substantial additional material on accident causation and prevention concepts and activities (Culvenor, J. 2005, Editing the final stage of the Safe Design: An Engineering Resource Package).
- Description: K1
- Description: 2003002681
Falls from plasterers' work platforms in Australia
- Authors: Cowley, Stephen , Leggett, Susan
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Health, Safety and Environment Vol. 26, no. 3 (2010), p. 259-268
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- Description: Plasterers are over-represented in falls-related injury data. When accessing work at height, it is common for plasterers to use stilts, trestles, scaffolds and ladders (as well as other conveniently available items) as work platforms. To determine the prevalence of injuries sustained through the use of work platforms, a review of workers compensation claims recorded between 31 July 2002 and 30 September 2007 in New South Wales and Victoria was undertaken. During this period, 283 workers compensation claims (costing A$ 19.3m) were recorded. The greatest number of falls was from ladders, followed by scaffolds and trestles. Sixty-one claims (costing A$1.5m) were made for injuries sustained while alighting (stepping off) platforms. Very few injury reports implicated stilts. It is possible that this is associated with the veracity of the data within the claims databases or an under-reporting phenomenon. The findings have implications for policy formulation and demonstrate the need for empirical research that is not dependent on injury data.
Impact of health and safety representative training on concepts of accident causation and prevention
- Authors: Culvenor, John , Cowley, Stephen , Harvey, Jack
- Date: 2003
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Occupational Health and Safety - Australia and New Zealand Vol. 19, no. 3 (2003), p. 279-292
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- Description: In South Australia, health and safety representatives (HSRs) may undertake three levels of training, commencing at basic level, then progressing through advanced level to continuing level. A survey of 1,200 HSRs in SA was conducted to assess their beliefs about accident causation and accident prevention. In regard to accident causation, the survey found that HSRs showed a tendency to favour behavioural causation over workplace environment or systems-type causation. In regard to accident prevention, HSRs at all levels of training had a preference for low-order controls. However, there appears to be some shift in thinking by the time HSRs have completed all levels of training (that is, to the continuing training level), though the thinking of most remains distinctly safe-worker in orientation.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003003020
Increasing the adoption of OHS risk controls in small business : Can social marketing help to achieve change?
- Authors: Cowley, Stephen , Else, Dennis , LaMontagne, A.
- Date: 2004
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Occupational Health and Safety Australia and New Zealand Vol. 20, no. 1 (2004), p. 69-77
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- Description: 2003000708
Injuries in the Victorian thoroughbred racing industry
- Authors: Cowley, Stephen , Bowman, Bindi , Lawrance, Michael
- Date: 2007
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: British Journal of Sports Medicine Vol. 41, no. 10 (2007), p. 639-643
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- Description: There is increasing concern in Australia about safety in the thoroughbred racing industry, but there has been no reported analysis of injury data. This review analyses injury and workers' compensation data recorded in Victoria. On the basis of the results, it is recommended that the injury and incident data collection systems are improved such that they are not only more complete but also accumulate more detailed information about the location of an incident or injury event, the activity at the time of the incident or injury event, and factors that may have influenced the occurrence.
Manual handling risks associated with the care, treatment and transportation of bariatric (severely obese) clients in Australia
- Authors: Cowley, Stephen , Leggett, Susan
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Work Vol. 39, no. 4 (2011), p. 477-483
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- Description: Carers of bariatric (morbidly obese) clients are exposed to manual handling injury risk throughout the journey that such clients take within the healthcare system. To identify the factors that affect risks associated with bariatric clients and the subsequent adoption of risk control measures focus groups were conducted in two Australian state capitals: a suburban region of Melbourne and a large regional Victorian town. Participants, were recruited from within the primary health care sector, ambulance services, fire services and funeral businesses. It was found that the risks to which nurses, ambulance officers, fire fighters, and funeral industry employees are exposed are significant. The injury risk is influenced by the nature and design of the range of environments within which client movement is undertaken; the limited range of handling equipment available for use with bariatric clients; and the efficacy of organisational procedures and training. Adoption of risk controls is hampered by the absence of a standard definition of the term "bariatric" and the gaps in information flow during the bariatric client journey through the health care system. Various definitions of bariatric are applied in different sectors and there are limitations to the use of both weight and body mass index in those definitions. © 2011 - IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved.
Manual handling risks associated with the care, treatment and transportation of bariatric patients and clients in Australia
- Authors: Cowley, Stephen , Leggett, Susan
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Nursing Practice Vol. 16, no. 3 (2010), p. 262-267
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- Description: To gain an understanding of the factors that affect the risks and the adoption of risk control measures during the care of bariatric patients, focus groups were conducted in rural and metropolitan locations in Australia. It was found that the manual handling injury risk to carers is influenced by the design of the environments within which patient movement is undertaken; the limited range of handling equipment available for use with bariatric patients; and the efficacy of organizational procedures and training. Adoption of risk controls is hampered by the absence of a standard definition of the term 'bariatric' and limitations in the use of weight and body mass index in definitions. There are gaps in information flow during the bariatric patient journey through the health-care system and a lack of knowledge about how to safely manage the unique needs of bariatric patients.
Manual handling risks associated with the transportation of bariatric patients in Australia
- Authors: Cowley, Stephen , Leggett, Susan
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Emergency Primary Health Care Vol. 8, no. 2 (2010), p. 1-9
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- Description: Objectives Identify the factors that affect the risks and the adoption of risk control measures during the care of bariatric (morbidly obese) patients by paramedics and fire fighter first responders in Australia. Methods Focus groups were conducted in neutral locations in two Australian state capitals; a suburban region of Melbourne which straddled the rural and metropolitan boundaries; and a large regional Victorian town. Results Carers of bariatric patients are exposed to manual handling injury risk throughout the journey that bariatric patients take within the healthcare and funeral systems. In focussing on paramedics and fire service first responders, as key groups within that journey, it was found that the risks are significant but are not quantifiable. The injury risk is influenced by the nature and design of the range of environments within which patient movement is undertaken; the limited range of handling equipment available for use with bariatric patients; and the efficacy of organisational procedures and training. Adoption of risk controls is hampered by the absence of a standard definition of the term "bariatric" and gaps in the information flow during the bariatric patient journey through the health care system. Various definitions of bariatric are applied in different sectors and there are limitations to the use of both weight and body mass index in those definitions. Conclusions There is a lack of knowledge about how to safely manage the unique needs of bariatric patients. It appears that few streamlined systems have been established for patient management, and many cases are managed as if they are an isolated experience. There is little documentation of systems or case studies and thus very little sharing of the knowledge. Improvements in manual handling risk control for carers requires greater inter and intra-industry collaboration, which in turn requires an agreed definition of "bariatric".
- Description: 2003008301
OH&S in small business : Influencing the decision makers : The application of a social marketing model to increase the uptake of OHS risk control
- Authors: Cowley, Stephen
- Date: 2006
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
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- Description: Losses resulting from traumatic injuries and occupational disease are prevalent in the small business sector of Australian industry. Although the true size of the problem is unclear, it is estimated that the losses amount to more than $8 billion annually. The hazard control measures to counter these losses are largely known and are available to small businesses but they are not widely adopted. Regulators and other bodies have employed a range of intervention strategies to influence decision-makers in small businesses but most have focussed on the dissemination of printed materials or broadbased advertising campaigns with limited success......... The research concludes that the listening processes at the heart of social marketing add to the methods already used in the OHS discipline by forcing the marketer to listen to the subjective assessment of risk as perceived by targets as well as to question the evidence base that supports the legitimacy and efficacy of the proposed intervention. The TTM was found to be a useful means of categorising small business decision-maker behaviour and assessing the readiness for change of individuals and therefore the messages that are needed to unfreeze behaviour. The TTM also provides a tool for evaluation of the impact of an intervention.As a result of this research it is suggested that opinion leaders, who are employed within a social marketing model to diffuse information, multiply the effort of those wishing to increase the adoption of an innovation. Thus engagement of opinion leaders by an OHS authority for the communication of risk control messages may be more cost-effective than attempting to visit every workplace within an industry group. Thus, although social marketing is not in the general repertoire of OHS interventions, it appears to be extremely useful as a framework for interventions and, when used in concert with a stages of change model, provides natural lead indicators for evaluating the impact of OHS interventions. Application of social marketing to people who have the responsibility for the health and safety of others was unique.
- Description: Doctor of Philosphy
Prevention of falls and manual handling injuries among plasterers : The case for intervention
- Authors: Cowley, Stephen , Leggett, Susan
- Date: 2003
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Occupational Health and Safety Australia and New Zealand Vol. 19, no. 5 (2003), p. 447-456
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- Description: Although there are few sources of information specific to plastering, there are data that suggest that individuals who do this type of work are at high risk of injury. While it is commonly accepted internationally that plasterers are exposed to significant risks in the areas of manual handling and falls, direct comparisons to and wholesale adoption of overseas knowledge are inappropriate. A literature review has demonstrated that there has been a great emphasis on defining the size of the problem. There is limited research relating to the adoption of evaluated risk control strategies, and what controls are known are not necessarily universally applicable. The risk control strategies that are known and available are in need of evaluation. To increase the adoption of evaluated risk controls, it is recommended that social marketing strategies be used.
- Description: C1
- Description: 2003000620
Reducing the energy cost of dragging sheep during sheep shearing
- Authors: Payne, Warren , Culvenor, John , Lawrance, Michael , Harvey, Jack , Cowley, Stephen , Stuart, David , Williams, Robyn
- Date: 2002
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Occupational Health and Safety - Australia and New Zealand Vol. 18, no. 2 (2002), p. 173-179
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- Description: The task of dragging sheep into position for shearing has been reported by shearers as the most physically demanding and one of the highest injury risk aspects of shearing, particularly with regard to back injury. This study aimed to identify which of the currently used drag paths induced the lowest energy consumption and risk of injury. The drag path with the lowest work economy (oxygen cost per sheep dragged per minute) and highest injury risk is used by left-handed shearers who are shearing from a workstation which is designed for right-handed shearers. Importantly, there were no significant differences in the work economy of the two drag paths which were used most frequently and which involved the lowest injury risk. These data have been used in advocating the adoption of simple shearing shed design solutions to assist in the control of injury risk and energy expenditure in the wool industry.
- Description: 2003000247
Risk matrices: implied accuracy and false assumptions
- Authors: Pickering, Alexander , Cowley, Stephen
- Date: 2010
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Health & Safety Research & Practice Vol. 2, no. 1 (2010), p. 11-18
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- Description: Risk matrices are used during hazard identification and risk assessment processes and provide a construct for people needing to display the two variable relationship between likelihood and consequence that are considered to be the elements of risk. The purpose of a matrix is to reduce the continuum of risk into ranges or bands such as high, medium or low. These bands are often allocated colours such as red for the highest risks to green for the lowest. Sometimes each band in a matrix is allocated a numerical value or range. The multiplication of likelihood and consequence implies a quantitative basis although it may not be widely understood. The multiplication operator produces lines of equal risk that a matrix cannot model accurately and thereby introduces risk reversal errors. Weaknesses in matrices are further compounded by subjectivity and bias introduced by users and the value of such tools is brought into doubt. A shift of emphasis from the risk assessment stage to the risk control stage of a hazard management process may lead to better and more timely decision making and better use of resources.
- Description: C1
Safety in the Victorian thoroughbred horseracing industry
- Authors: Cowley, Stephen , Bowman, Bindi , Lawrance, Michael
- Date: 2007
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Occupational Health and Safety - Australia and New Zealand Vol. 23, no. 5 (2007), p. 421-431
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- Description: Employees in the Victorian thoroughbred horseracing industry who work closely with horses are exposed to a significant risk of traumatic injury. Although jockeys are the main focus of attention in this industry sector and in the literature, a large number of injuries are sustained by track riders and stable attendants. Exploratory research into the nature of the injury problem was undertaken and it was found that there is a culture in the Victorian thoroughbred horseracing sector that leads to a greater focus on horses and their performance rather than on the health, safety and wellbeing of employees. Workers are exposed to a significant risk of injury as a result of shortcomings with regard to OHS management, the work environment, equipment, rules and procedures, and training and education. There appears to be little understanding of the mutual responsibilities at shared workplaces and a low level of responsiveness by those in a position to control hazards at training tracks and racetracks.
- Description: C1