Fall prevention training and its impact to southern Nevada construction workers

Death and injury from falls are a long-standing and continuing problem in construction, responsible for at least a third of the construction deaths in the U.S. from 2004 to 2007. Each of those years, Nevada has exceeded the national percentage. Although 29 CFR 1926.503 sets forth Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) 's requirements that construction employers train employees exposed to fall hazards and document such training, the incidence of deaths and injuries from falls are an indicator that this training was not provided or else was not effective. Conventional fall protection training is more narrowly focused on recognizing fall hazards and using fall protection systems. Therefore the specific aim of this study is to :(1) design, deliver, and evaluate an effective fall prevention training program for the Southern Nevada construction workers; (2) produce English and Spanish curricular materials, including the training approach, for dissemination; and (3) measure the impact of training on worker 's job site behavior. This study also assesses the participants ' knowledge, teaches them how to use fall safety equipment, summarizes the feedback of the participants, and provides the findings from the follow-up survey conducted with the participants to measure the impact of training on jobsite behavior. The participants ' feedback of the class showed that the training classes were excellent. The trainees ' competency evaluations showed that majority of the trainees were able to identify the fall hazards and safety of equipment. The follow-up interviews showed that the majority of the participants found this training helpful for their construction career.