Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
knows that we have to teach our children most of the dangers of this
world, from the dangers of a hot stove to the traffic on the street, to a
sensitivity for avoiding interesting pills at a dance party though the
majority of attendants is using them. This teaching is a form of (re)pro-
gramming. Some elements belong to our innate danger repertoire, like a
sensitivity for being more aware of dangerous sounds or objects like
moving cars. Most of all, we need to share our concerns and feelings of
anxiety, which our children will sense. Step by step, our children learn
to recognize and to anticipate the dangers of this modern world.
All employees need to be raised in becoming sensitive to dangers.
A comparable teaching process has to be done when an employee
starts to work in a new work environment. Just like raising our chil-
dren, we have to start from scratch during the induction period and
teach new colleagues to become sensitive to all the risks involved in the
work, one by one. It is a deadly sin to assume that new colleagues
already know the dangers involved. A direct boss or one of the experi-
enced colleagues needs to take the role of safety coach until induction is
fully completed.
3.1 CREATING RISK SENSITIVITY
Every safety coach should have knowledge of two things: the potential
dangers in the present work situation and the principles by which risk
sensitivity can be programmed. A small overview of general learning
psychology can introduce us to the different ways we can learn or con-
dition behavior. Humans don
t rely on one specific learning principle,
and actually use a mix in which a whole variety of principles work
together. The three most important learning principles used in develop-
ing safety behavior will be described here. They are called:
'
1. Classical conditioning,
2. Operant conditioning, and
3. Model learning.
3.1.1 Classical Conditioning
Classical conditioning has become famous since Pavlov
s dog experi-
ments, and is active in many aspects of our life, for example, in the
'
