Influence of safety culture on quality-of-work-life of mental health workers in Ghana

Abstract

The study sought to determine the effect of safety culture on Quality-of -Work-Life (QoWL), the lived safety culture experiences, and how these experiences produced QoWL perceptions among mental health workers in Ghana. Eight research questions were formulated to guide the study. Employing a mixed methods design, 576 mental health workers were recruited purposively from Accra, Ankaful and Pantang Psychiatric Hospitals for the quantitative data collection. Additionally, purposive and snowball sampling strategies were used to collect data from fifteen health workers with interviews until data saturation. A questionnaire from pre-existing instruments and semi-structured interview guide were used for data collections. Chi-Square, Factorial Analysis of Variance, Multiple Analysis of Variance, and Path Analysis using PROCESS Macro were employed for quantitative data analysis while Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used for qualitative data. The results indicated positive associations between workplace violence and working at mental health facilities. Also, safety culture had a significant direct positive effect on QoWL of mental health workers, with turnover intentions partially mediating the effect of safety culture on QoWL. Moreover, working at the mental health facilities produced a significant moderating effect on the effect of safety culture on turnover intentions and QoWL. Also, IPA showed that poor job satisfaction and high turnover intentions were formed due to poor safety culture experiences. Psychiatric hospital settings are posing serious safety culture risk to the QoWL perceptions of professionals. Management needs to provide a strong safety commitment in these facilities to increase the health and safety of the workers.