Occupational Health and Safety – OHS

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About Course

Course: Occupational Health and Safety – OHS

This course equips health students—including nurses, midwives, public health professionals, and other allied healthcare workers—with essential knowledge and practical skills in occupational health and safety (OHS), tailored specifically to healthcare and other high-risk environments. It has been developed by professional tutors in alignment with national curricula for nurses, midwives, and allied health professionals.

This course is designed to prepare you as a confident leader in workplace health and safety while supporting success in academic and professional examinations.

Through a comprehensive and contextually relevant curriculum, learners will explore foundational and advanced OHS topics, including hazard identification, risk assessment, waste management, legal frameworks, and preventive strategies based on globally recognized models such as the five-step hazard control hierarchy.

You will gain critical insights into the health worker’s role in promoting workplace safety, proper use of personal protective equipment (PPE), injection safety, post- and pre-exposure prophylaxis protocols, and the Workers’ Compensation Act 2000.

The course also addresses psychosocial challenges such as work-related stress, violence, and the importance of work-life balance, preparing you for the realities of modern healthcare environments.

Engaging tools such as interactive quizzes, case studies, past paper reviews, and assignments ensure practical application of knowledge for both workplace readiness and exam success.

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

  • Understand key occupational health and safety concepts, principles, and legal frameworks relevant to Uganda.

  • Identify, categorize, and assess occupational hazards across various healthcare and non-healthcare workplace settings.

  • Apply appropriate prevention and control measures, including the five-step hazard control hierarchy and proper use of PPE.

  • Promote and maintain a safe working environment by educating others, practicing safe procedures, and responding effectively to incidents and psychosocial risks.

  • Integrate ethical and sustainable approaches into occupational health and safety practices.

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Course Content

🔷 Topic 1: Course Introduction and Orientation
This opening section introduces the course, its purpose, learning structure, and student expectations. It also provides orientation materials and guidance on how to navigate the content, engage with assignments, and use support resources throughout the course.

  • Lesson 1.1: Welcome and course overview
  • Lesson 1.2: What is Occupational Health and Safety?
  • Lesson 1.3: Students’ roles and responsibilities
  • Quiz: Introduction to OHS

✅ Topic 2: Foundations of Occupational Health and Safety
In this foundational section, learners explore key terms and principles of occupational health and safety (OHS), including terms like hazards, risks, disasters, occupation, health, safety, and risk assessments, while highlighting the importance and goals of OHS in healthcare and other sectors and the role of health workers in creating safe workplaces.

🔷 Topic 3: Occupational Hazards in the Workplace
This topic explores the different types of occupational health hazards—biological, chemical, physical, ergonomic, and psychosocial. It also examines how these hazards appear in different settings such as hospitals, schools, factories, transport, and the oil sector, preparing learners to recognize risks wherever they work.

🔷 Topic 4: Hazard Prevention and Control
Here, students learn strategies for minimizing or eliminating workplace hazards using the globally recognized five-step hierarchy of hazard control. It also covers the correct use of personal protective equipment (PPE) and introduces safe practices such as injection safety to prevent occupational exposures.

🔷 Topic 5: OHS Legal Frameworks and Ethics
This topic introduces learners to a list of OHS legal policies, acts, and bodies like the ILO (International Labor Organization -UN) or country ministries of labor. Specifically, this section explores Uganda’s Workers’ Compensation Act 2000 and other relevant regulations as guided by the curriculum. Learners gain insights into the legal rights and responsibilities of both employers and healthcare workers, and the importance of legal compliance in promoting safe and ethical work environments.

✅ Topic 6:Healthcare Waste and Infection Control
Learners are introduced to healthcare waste categories, safe waste handling, and disposal methods. Emphasis is placed on infection prevention through proper waste management practices and institutional procedures that reduce exposure to hazardous biological materials.

🔷 Topic 7: Health Protection and Disease Prevention
This section covers protocols for managing potential disease exposure, including the use of post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Students also review standard infection prevention procedures that protect both healthcare workers and patients.

✅ Topic 8: Mental Health and Psychosocial Risks at Work
Work-related stress, burnout, and workplace violence are major concerns in healthcare. This topic explores their causes, effects, and practical strategies for prevention and management. Work-life balance is discussed as a protective factor for maintaining mental wellness.

✅ Topic 9: Risk Management and Safety Culture
This topic introduces learners to the tools and processes used in hazard identification and risk assessment. It also emphasizes the creation of a positive safety culture where all staff are engaged in maintaining safe practices and reporting unsafe conditions.

✅ Topic 10: Modern Issues in Occupational Health
Learners examine how modern trends such as mobile phone use and technology in healthcare can impact occupational safety. The topic also links OHS to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), encouraging learners to view health and safety as part of broader national and global development efforts.

🔷 Topic 11: Opportunities and Real-World Applications in OHS
This section explores how OHS knowledge can be applied in real-world settings through an entrepreneurial, innovative, and professional lens—opening opportunities in safety leadership, compliance, training, and institutional safety programs.

🏁 Topic 12: Course Summary and Assessment
In this final section, learners will review key concepts covered throughout the course and complete assessments designed to test their understanding and practical application of occupational health and safety principles in real-world healthcare and workplace contexts.

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