Department of Occupational Health Practice and Management, Institute of Industrial Ecological Sciences, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Kitakyushu, Japan.
J Occup Health. 2024 Jan 4;66(1). doi: 10.1093/joccuh/uiae050.
Occupational health and safety management systems (OHSMS) are the foundation of occupational health and safety activities within an organization. An important element of these systems is audits. However, OHSMS auditors often lack confidence in conducting occupational health audits compared with their proficiency in conducting occupational safety audits. For occupational health to be effectively managed by OHSMS, the sampling competence of auditors engaged in third-party audits should be improved. Therefore, we conducted this study to identify appropriate sampling targets for occupational health related to International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 45001.
We adopted a mixed methods approach to identify appropriate sampling targets. This involved conducting focus group discussions with experts in occupational health and performing systematic text condensation analysis. The validity of our findings was further reinforced through confirmation by external auditors who specialize in ISO 45001.
In the qualitative phase, 6 occupational health sampling targets were identified, and of these, 5 were subsequently validated in the quantitative phase: (1) Health issues, legal requirements, and occupational health goals identified by the organization; (2) Occupational health risk assessment and control processes; (3) Processes related to occupational health and documented information showing the results of efforts; (4) Organizational roles and functions of occupational health professionals and opportunities for their professional development; and (5) Processes to ensure commitment to occupational health issues and objectives.
To ensure effective and comprehensive occupational health audits, auditors should review these targets. This study will enhance the competence of auditors by identifying appropriate occupational health sampling targets.
职业健康安全管理体系（OHSMS）是组织内职业健康安全活动的基础。这些系统的一个重要组成部分是审核。然而，与职业安全审核相比，OHSMS 审核员在进行职业健康审核时往往缺乏信心。为了使 OHSMS 有效地管理职业健康，应提高从事第三方审核的审核员的抽样能力。因此，我们进行了这项研究，以确定与国际标准化组织（ISO）45001 相关的职业健康的适当抽样目标。
我们采用混合方法来确定适当的抽样目标。这包括与职业健康专家进行焦点小组讨论，并进行系统文本浓缩分析。我们的发现通过专门从事 ISO 45001 的外部审核员的确认得到了进一步加强。
在定性阶段，确定了 6 个职业健康抽样目标，其中 5 个在定量阶段得到了验证：（1）组织确定的健康问题、法律要求和职业健康目标；（2）职业健康风险评估和控制过程；（3）与职业健康相关的过程和显示努力结果的文件信息；（4）职业健康专业人员的组织角色和职能以及他们职业发展的机会；（5）确保对职业健康问题和目标的承诺的过程。
为了确保进行有效和全面的职业健康审核，审核员应审查这些目标。本研究将通过确定适当的职业健康抽样目标来提高审核员的能力。
