Occupational Health and Safety Train the Trainer Program in a Nutmeg Production Plant in Grenada, The Caribbean

Background and Objective: The nutmeg industry is a major contributor to the island of Grenada's economy. The goal of this program was to implement and evaluate an occupational health and safety (OHS) train the trainer program in a nutmeg production plant. Methods: The OHS train the trainer program was tailored for the nutmeg processing environment. Four workers from two nutmeg processing plants and one from the Grenada Cooperative Nutmeg Association participated the training. The training consisted of several classroom sessions and a practical session at the nutmeg plant. Result: All five trainees successfully completed the training. Three months after the initial training, one of the trainees served as a trainer and conducted the first OHS training to nutmeg workers at one of the plants. A total of 53 workers participated the training. At the pre-training evaluation, 43% of workers associated OHS with hazards in the environment such as dust and noise and 21% reported OHS as taking precautions. Thirty-six percent (36%) of the workers were unable to describe OHS. At the post-training evaluation, 83% of workers reported that OHS was related to protecting workers from hazards in the environment. Conclusions: The training served to change workers' knowledge level about OHS and to increase workers' ability to exercise safety precautions at the nutmeg processing plant. Next steps include modification of the training manual based on participant evaluations in order to further increase knowledge and skills.