SAVIR 2023: Reporting and analyzing safety incidents to prevent near-misses, accidents, injuries and violence at school
Event:
Society for the Advancement of Violence and Injury Research (SAVIR) conference, 17.–19. April 2023 Denver, Colorado.
Title:
Reporting and analyzing safety incidents to prevent near-misses, accidents, injuries and violence at school
Authors:
E. Lindfors, E. Luukka, M. Leino, B. Somerkoski, T. Myllö, M. Waitinen, R. Varis
Abstract:
Safety incident reporting is very common in companies, but seldom used systemically in educational settings and school contexts. In fact, despite the fact that Finnish schools are typically considered as safe places for students and staff, little is known about safety culture, incidents and the countless near-misses that occur at comprehensive schools. The Success in school safety 2022-2023 is a research and development project funded by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture, which aims to provide comprehensive schools versatile tools to develop their safety. One of these tools is a mobile application which allows students and teachers to report safety incidents. Understanding the root causes of and the nature of safety incidents is essential for not only preventing safety incidents but also for strengthening an organization’s resilience in dealing with various safety events.
A common approach to consider school safety is analyzing it from physical, psychological, social and pedagogical perspectives. We adopt this approach and use qualitative document analysis to reveal various types of incidents and near-miss cases that take place in the 15 pilot schools of our intervention study. We invite the pilot schools’ staff – approximately 700 – and approximately 6250 students (grades 1-9, aged 7 to 16) to file incident reports. The data presented is a sample of the incident reports collected during the autumn of 2022.
Our results provide pioneering information on the kinds of safety incidents and near-misses which occur in schools. Our results enable schools to develop and suggest prevention procedures to deter similar events in the future. The long-term significance of the study lies in educating learners who are familiar with and understand the significance of reporting and tackling safety incidents, we may see a notable reduction in occupational safety incidents as these learners mature and begin their careers.
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