Personal support workers’ perception of safety in a changing world of work

Background: Most studies on occupational health and safety in home and community care focus on the health and safety of professional health care workers such as nurses and therapists and very few address the occupational health and safety of personal support workers (PSWs) who provide 70–80% of community care in the home. The PSW Health and Safety Matters! project provides evidence on the health and safety of PSWs working in the home and community in Ontario. Purpose: The objective of this paper is to address the question: which occupational risk factors are associated with the PSWs’ perception of a safe work environment? Methods: Data come from our 2015 survey of 1746 PSWs in Ontario, Canada. The endogenous variable in the analysis is the perception of safety on the job. Correlations and logistic regression are employed to examine the associations of safety on the job to a number of work-related exogenous variables that measure organizational support, work environment factors, work experience, and a number of demographic control variables. Results: The PSW Health and Safety Matters! Project reveals that almost one half of PSWs perceived that their job is safe. Findings show PSWs who report having the support of their organizations and who feel their training is appropriate and adequate are more likely to perceive their work environment as being safe. With respect to the work environmental factors measured here, PSWs who report hazards at work and a heavy workload, who experience job insecurity, who have been injured on the job, and who agree that their job requires physical effort are less likely to perceive their work environment as safe. Being a victim of violence or harassment at work is not significantly related to the perception that the job is safe. On the other hand, PSWs who agree that they have control over their work are more likely to perceive their job as safe. With respect to work experience, PSWs with more years on the job are more likely to agree that their job is safe. Working full versus part-time is not significantly related to the perception of safety on the job. With respect to the control variables, neither years of age, birthplace or education level is associated with agreeing that PSW work is safe. Conclusions: The paper stresses the importance of providing a climate of safety to improve occupational health and safety and the crucial role organizations can play in providing this climate of safety.