Evaluating the Gulf of Mexico oil spill safety training: Assessing training effectiveness among multiple stakeholders in the Gulf Coast

The need for rigorous comprehensive evaluations for objectively evaluating the program effectiveness of various health and safety and emergency preparedness and disaster response training is long established. In particular, research has called for training evaluation systems that provide evidence of the training effectiveness from the perspectives of the various program stakeholders. The purpose of this presentation is to describe an evaluation process that was developed to assess the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Gulf Oil Spill (GOS) safety training including preliminary results of this integrated evaluation process.

In response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, NIEHS trained over 147,000 workers across four states to assist in rapid and efficient mitigation of continued environmental contamination while ensuring minimal impact to public health. A multiple stakeholder evaluation process was designed to assess effectiveness of the GOS safety training, from various sources, including workers (e.g., on-shore and off-shore volunteers, technical specialists), trainers, supervisors, employers, and community-based organizations. Obtaining information from these multiple sources, experiences and perspectives imparts a more thorough and accurate analysis of the effectiveness of the training itself. Preliminary results will be discussed with respect to making quality improvements, identifying best practices, and making better use of available resources and strategies. The application of this evaluation system and resulting evidence will be highlighted including implications for strengthening other worker health and safety programs in disaster response and guiding related policy development.