Preparing employers to implement the Washington state ergonomics rule: evaluation of the training workshops.

Training of managers and workers is a mainstay of health and safety practice but it is rarely evaluated. We assessed the change in knowledge and perceived competence of participants, regarding the Washington State Ergonomics Rule, with the implementation of a 4-hour training session. We used the before and after study design without a control group to evaluate training workshops conducted between April 2001 and August 2002. There were 511 participants involved in the evaluation. Overall, participants' knowledge of the ergonomics rule and hazard reduction methods increased significantly. Those with no previous ergonomics training had a greater increase in their knowledge than those who had some ergonomics training in the past.