Unit IV Article critique, health and medical assignment help

Choose a journal article from the CSU Online Library that deals with any of the material presented in the first four units of this course. The article itself must be more than one page in length. The EBSCO Database (Business Source Complete) is a good source of journals for safety related articles. If you have a specific area of interest that is covered later in the course, you may ask for professor approval.

our Article Critique must be two to four pages in length, double spaced. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations.

Some suggested topics include

the organizational role of the safety professional,

the “business” of safety, hazard avoidance models,

current regulatory trends in occupational safety and health,

the safety professional’s role in disaster preparedness,

workplace standards, and

current occupational health issues.

The Article Critique must include the following components: a brief introduction to the article, a summary and analysis of the key points in the article, whether or not the article supports the concepts as presented in the textbook , and a summary of the article’s conclusions and your own opinions. Information about accessing the Blackboard Grading Rubric for this assignment is provided below.

article- Page i GAO-17-178 OHSA Training Letter 1 Background

3

OSHA’s Outreach Training Program Reflects Attributes of a Well

–

Designed Training Program

8

Outreach Training Providers Use Automated and Manual

Processes and Controls to Document Students’ Successful

Course Completion

12

OSHA Oversees Training Providers by Collecting Data and

Investigating Complaints, and Has Taken Some Steps to

Assess Program Results

16

Agency Comments

24

Appendix I

GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments

26

Tables

Table 1: Extent to Which the Design of OSHA’s Outreach Training

Program Reflects GAO Identified Attributes for a Well

–

Designed Trai

ning Program

9

Table 2: Selected OSHA Requirements for the 10-hour

Construction Outreach Training Course

11

Table 3: 11 Performance Elements OSHA Uses to Assess the

Education Centers’ Performance, Fiscal Year 2015

17

Figures

Figure 1: Growth in OSHA’s Outreach Training Program

– Number

of Workers Trained From Fiscal Year 2000 to 2016

7

Figure 2: OSHA Outreach Training Participants by Course Type,

Fiscal Year 2016

8

Figure 3: Course Completion Card Processing for OSHA’s In-

person and Online Outreach Training

13

Figure

4: Results of OSHA’s Monitoring of the Education Centers

by Performance Element, Fiscal Year 2015

19

Figure 5: OSHA Targets for Number of Workers Trained through

Its Outreach Training Program and Actual Number of

Workers Trained, Fiscal Years 2011-2016

22

Figure 6: OSHA’s Requirements for Assessing Outreach Training

Compared to Kirkpatrick Levels of Evaluation

23

Contents

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Abbreviations

DOL

Department of Labor

Education Centers

OSHA Training Institute Education Centers

IAC ET

International Association for Continuing Education

and Training

O SHA

Occupational Safety and Health Administration

O SH Ac t

Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970

This is a work of the U.

S. government and is not subject to copyright protection in the

United States. The published product may be reproduced and distributed in its entirety

without further permission from GAO. However, because this work may contain

copyrighted images or other m

aterial, permission from the copyright holder may be

necessary if you wish to reproduce this material separately.

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OHSA Training

441 G St. N.W.

Washington, DC 20548

February 7, 2017

The Honorable Tim Walberg

Chairman

Subcommittee on

Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions

Committee on Education and the Workforce

House of Representatives

Dear Mr. Chairman:

In 2014, approximately 4,800 workers died on the job, and employers

reported about 3 million nonfatal work

-related injuries, according to data

collected by the Department of Labor (DOL). DOL’

s Occupational Safety

and Health Administration (OSHA) is responsible for protecting the safety

and health of the nation’

s workers under the Occupational Safety and

Health

Act of 1970 (OSH Act).

1

Ensuring that workers are properly trained

in recognizing and avoiding workplace hazards is an important

component in establishing and maintaining a safe and healthy workplace.

In fiscal year 2016, approximately 900,000 workers wer

e trained in job

hazard recognition and avoidance through OSHA

’s Outreach Training

Program.

2

In-person Outreach Training is provided to workers by

Outreach trainers, safety professionals who have taken train-the-trainer

courses at OSHA Training Institute E

ducation Centers (Education

Centers), which are a national network of nonprofit organizations

authorized by OSHA to deliver various types of occupational safety and

health training. Since 2001, OSHA has also allowed Outreach Training

courses to be delivered online through authorized vendors.

Participation

in the program has grown substantially over time and although most

workers take the training in-person, workers are increasingly taking the

courses online.

You asked us to review OSHA

’s administration of t

he

program, including the in-person and online training, and to determine

how OSHA assesses the results of the program.

This report examines (1) the extent to which OSHA

’s Outreach Training

Program aligns with leading practices in designing an effective tr

aining

1

Pub. L. No. 91-596, 84 Stat. 1590 (codified as amended at 29 U.S.C. §§ 553, 651-78).

2

OSHA

’s Outreach Training Program is designed for workers, but according to OSHA

officials, individuals trained can include workers, employers, safety professionals,

supervisors, and students in high school and college. In this report, we use the term

“workers

” to refer collectively to all of these groups.

Letter

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OHSA Training

program, (2) the process OSHA uses to document students

’ successful

completion of the training and the extent to which internal controls are in

place to assure completion is accurately documented, and (3) how OSHA

oversees training providers and ass

esses the results of the program.

To address all of our objectives, we interviewed OSHA officials;

representatives from all nine online training providers; and

representatives from five Education Centers, selected because they had

among the highest number of Outreach Training participants of all 27

Education Centers in fiscal year 2015. Together, the 5 Education Centers

accounted for 46 percent of workers trained in-person that year.

3

We also

observed three Outreach Training courses

—two in-person and one

online. Our observations from these training courses are intended to be

illustrative, and are not generalizable. To determine the extent to which

the design of the Outreach Training Program reflects leading practices,

we compared the information obtained thr

ough interviews with OSHA

officials and agency documentation to practices identified in GAO

’s guide

for assessing training and federal internal control standards.

4

While

GAO

’s guide for assessing training is intended to help federal agencies

review

training and development programs for their employees, the

attributes of effective training programs identified in the guide are derived

from sources that are generally applicable to training and can be used to

review a particular agency program or activit

y. To examine the process

for documenting successful course completion, we reviewed (1) OSHA

’s

policies and procedures for issuing course completion cards and (2) other

information obtained from OSHA, the online training providers, and the

five Education C

enters. We also analyzed the latest OSHA data available

at the time of our review from fiscal years 2012 through 2016 on the

timeframes for processing requests from online training providers for

3

There are currently 27 Education Centers.

4

GAO,

Human Capital: A Guide for Assessing Strategic Training and Development Efforts

in the Federal Government

, GAO

-04-546G

(Washington, D.C.: Mar. 1, 2004) and GAO,

Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government

, GAO

-14-704G

, (Washington,

D.C.:

Sept. 10, 2014). GAO

’s guide for assessing training summarizes attributes of

effective training programs related to four components of the training process: (1)

planning/front

-end analysis, (2) design/development, (3) implementation, and (4)

evaluation. G

AO obtained the information in this guide through consultations with

government officials and experts in the private sector, academia, and nonprofit

organizations; examinations of laws and regulations related to training and development in

the federal government; and a review of the literature on training and development issues.

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OHSA Training

course completion cards.

5

We assessed the reliability of OSHA

’s card

processing data by (1) performing electronic testing of required data

elements, (2) reviewing existing information about the data and the

system that produced them, and (3) interviewing agency officials

knowledgeable about the data. Based on these reviews, we determined

that the data were sufficiently reliable for our purposes. To determine how

OSHA oversees Outreach Training providers and assesses the results of

the program, we reviewed OSHA

’s reporting requirements for training

providers, monitori

ng procedures, and agency monitoring reports. We

also compared OSHA

’s efforts to training evaluation practices in GAO

’s

training guide (

GAO

-04-546G

) and federal internal control standards.

We conducted this performance audit from February 2016 to February

2017 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing

standards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to

obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable

basis for

our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe

that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings

and conclusions based on our audit objectives.

OSHA is the federal agency responsible for

administering the

Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, as amended (OSH Act),

which was enacted to assure safe and healthful working conditions for the

nation’

s workers.

6

As authorized by the act, OSHA sets and enforces

occupational safety and health

standards, which are regulations that set

forth specific safety and health requirements with which covered

5

We did not analyze data on how long it takes for the Education Centers to process

course completion cards for workers who take the training in person because the

Education Center

s use different information systems to process the cards and no single

data source exists that would allow us to analyze the data.

6

Pub. L. No. 91-596, 84 Stat. 1590 (codified as amended at 29 U.S.C. §§ 553, 651-678).

Under the OSH Act, states may choose

to operate their own occupational safety and

health programs in accordance with state plans approved by OSHA.

Background

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OHSA Training

employers must comply.

7

Among its other responsibilities under the OSH

Act, OSHA is also required to provide for the establishment and

supervision of training programs to help workers and employers

recognize, avoid, and prevent workplace safety and health hazards.

8

The Outreach Training Program is the agency

’s primary way to offer

training for workers in the basics of occupational safety and health,

according to OSHA.

9

Outreach Training includes voluntary 10-hour and

30-hour safety courses designed to provide basic hazard awareness

training for workers in construction, maritime, and general industry, and a

15-hour course for workers at disaster sites.

The training covers how to

recognize and prevent hazards on a jobsite, workers

’ rights, employers

’

responsibilities, and how to file a complaint. The 30-hour courses are

intended to provide more in-depth training to workers who have some

safety responsibil

ity. Workers that successfully complete an OSHA

Outreach Training Program course receive a student course completion

card. The student course completion cards in Construction, General

Industry, and Disaster Site do not have an expiration date; however, the

Maritime Outreach Training student course completion cards expire 5

years after completing the training.

While OSHA does not require workers to take its Outreach Training

courses, depending on their jobs and where the workers are located, they

may be subj

ect to other requirements to show an OSHA course

7

The OSH Act generally covers private sector employers and requires most federal

agencies to maintain occupational safety and health programs that are consistent with

OSHA standards. States that operate their own programs may cover private sector

employers and must cover state and local government employers. These states may set

and enforce their own standards, provided they are at least as effect

ive as OSHA

’s . OSHA

enforces its occupational safety and health standards (referred to in this report as “OS H A

standards

”) by conducting inspections in response to complaints or on its own initiative,

and may issue citations to employers it finds have viol

ated the OSH Act or OSHA

regulations.

8

29 U.S.C. § 670(c).

9

In addition to the Outreach Training Program, OSHA also engages in other efforts to

provide training to workers. For example, OSHA administers the Susan Harwood Training

Grants Program, which provides competitive grants to nonprofit organizations to provide

training and education programs for employers and workers on the recognition,

avoidance, and prevention of workplace safety and health hazards. OSHA also provides

training for federal and state compliance officers through its OSHA Training Institute;

private sector workers and federal workers from agencies other than OSHA may receive

training from the OSHA Training Institute when space is available.

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completion card to demonstrate they completed the training.

10

For

example, some states, municipalities, unions, and employers may require

workers to take an OSHA Outreach Training course as a condition of

employment for certain jobs, and OSHA maintains a list of states and

municipalities that have such a requirement. According to OSHA

’s list,

seven states (Connecticut, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nevada, New

Hampshire, New York,

and Rhode Island), and three munic

ipalities

( Miam i

-Dade County, New York City, and Philadelphia) require certain

workers to take some form of OSHA Outreach Training or an equivalent

training. For example, all of these states and municipalities require certain

workers on public construction

projects to take a 10-hour construction

safety course. Some, including Nevada and Philadelphia, also require this

training for workers on private construction projects.

Outreach Training courses are delivered by OSHA

-authorized external

training providers that receive no funding from OSHA, but instead, rely on

tuition and fees from training participants to cover the cost of the training.

The types of training providers include Education Centers, which train

Outreach t

rainers to deliver in-person Outreach Training courses to

workers, and online training providers.

•

Education Centers:

OSHA has nonfinancial cooperative agreements

with 27 Education Centers

–which are typically universities

–to provide

occupational safety and health training to workers and employers on

behalf of OSHA.

11

The Education Centers have two main roles under

the Outreach Training Program: (1) conduct in-person train-the-trainer

courses to qualified individuals interested in becoming authorized

Outreach trainers; and (2) act as an authorized training organization

for the Outreach trainers by monitoring Outreach trainers through

records audits and training observations and by processing course

completion cards that Outreach trainers request on behalf of the

workers who take their courses. OSHA selected the Education

Centers through a formal competitive application process. Successful

10

Although some OSHA standards require cover

ed employers to provide certain types of

training for their workers, OSHA Outreach Training does not fulfill the training

requirements found in OSHA standards.

11

In addition to their Outreach Training Program responsibilities, the Education Centers

are responsible for delivering other occupational safety and health courses to workers and

employers on behalf of OSHA. The other offerings include courses on OSHA standards

and special topics, such as recordkeeping, machine guarding, and fall arrest system