Commuting Accidents among Health Care Workers Working in Malaysia Government Hospitals
Abstract
Commuting accidents are accidents occurring while travelling to and from work, and in the course of work. Studies have demonstrated that long working hours are associated with deprived sleeping time. Acute sleep deprivation may result in significant changes in cognitive functioning, alteration of mental status resembling depression or anxiety and difficulty with short-term memory. Some other studies have found that sleep deprivation significantly affects physician performance, alertness and patient safety. However, individual factors concerning workers’ behavior, family-related factors (parenting responsibility), work burden, workplace support as well as environmental factors such as bad weather and bad road conditions are also significant contributors of commuting accidents. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship of long working hours or odd working hours and the risk exposure of the drivers during their work-commuting trips. The study was based on data collected from official notification forms. Sample size for this research was 554 based on 2014 to 2017 reported cases. Review of the statistics showed that most of the commuting accident causalities
occurred during travel to work (30.1%), compared to back from work after normal office hours (28.7%) and during odd hours (night shift and post-call) (12.5%). Nurses contributed significantly to these causalities (53%), followed by hospital attendants (17%), medical officer and assistant medical officer, respectively, 6 percent. The
increasing number of commuting accidents among healthcare workers is alarming. As such, it is timely that proactive actions be taken by employers to educate their employees, their most valuable assets, on safe commuting management.
Keywords: commuting accident, healthcare workers, road crashes
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