Factors Influencing Compliance with Occupational Safety and Health Regulations in Public Hospitals in Kenya: A Case Study of Thika Level 5 Hospital

Health care workers, especially nurses, have been identified as a neglected group with regard to monitoring of their occupational safety and health status, and research has shown that their safety and health does not get the attention it deserves by employers. Thika Level 5 hospital is one of the hospitals that are apparently adversely affected by the gaps that were identified by the countrywide OSH risk assessment within the health sector. The main purpose of the study was to determine factors influencing compliance with occupational safety and health legislation in public hospitals in Kenya using Thika Level 5 Hospital as a case study. The study was guided by the following two research objectives, to determine how communication and OSH training influence compliance with OSH legislation at Thika Level 5 Hospital. The study used a case study research design and targeted 140 nurses across the six departments of Thika Level 5 Hospital, and from which a sample of 70 respondents was drawn for the study. Stratified sampling technique was used to select respondents according to their departments. A questionnaire was used as the main instruments for data collection. Data collected was coded and entered into the computer for analysis using the SPSS version 21 which is the latest program. Descriptive statistics including percentages, frequencies mean, and standard deviation were used to analyze the data obtained. While inferential statistics such as correlation and regression were used to determine the relationship between the variables. The results derived from the analysis were presented in form of charts and tables. From the findings the study established that the tow independent variables showed a positive correlation and statistically significant relationship with compliance with safety and health regulations, communication (r=0.721, pless than0.01) and OSH training (r=0.869, pless than0.01). On the regression summary the R Square is 0.761 which shows that compliance with safety and health regulations was affected by communication and OSH training. This indicated that there was a variation of 76.1 % on compliance with safety and health regulations with communication and OSH training. The remaining 23.9 % indicates that there are other factors which affected compliance with safety and health regulations at Thika Level 5 Hospital which were not studied in the current study. In interpretation of coefficients, holding all the independent variables communication and OSH training constant at zero then compliance with safety and health regulations would be 0.221. Also the findings indicates that, taking all other independent variables to zero, a unit increase of communication led to 0.786 increases in compliance with safety and health regulations. A unit increase of OSH training led to 0.839 increases in compliance with safety and health regulations. Therefore training have the highest contribution of compliance with safety and health regulations at Thika Level 5 Hospital. The study recommends that Thika Level 5 Hospital should have a hazard reporting mechanism and training programes in responding to emergency situations when need arise. The study recommends it important to handle these areas as they have a great impact on outcomes of compliance with safety and health in public hospitals in Kenya and in particular Thika Level 5 Hospital.