Occupational health is neglected public health issues among the healthcare workers. Lack of adequate knowledge regarding the prevention of occupational hazards may be life threatening. Hence the study was undertaken toevaluate the effect of structured teaching programme on knowledge and practice regarding prevention of occupational health hazards among Class IV workers in selected hospital, Thrissur. The other objectives of the study were to assess the pre test knowledge and practice scores to correlate the knowledge and practices of Class IV workers and to find out the association of knowledge and practices with selected demographic variables. A preexperimental one group pretest post test design was adopted for the study. It was conducted over 30 Class IV workers and was selected by using purposive sampling technique. Pre test was done using structured knowledge questionnaire and self-reported practice checklist. After that, the researcher rendered structured teaching programme regarding prevention of occupational health hazards. Post test was done after seven days and analysis showed that there was a significant increase in knowledge and practice after rendering structured teaching programme. The pre test and post test mean of knowledge scores were 12.67 and 20.70, and practice score were 11.70 and 14.73, respectively. The findings also showed that there was no correlation between knowledge and practice (r=0.355, p=0.054). The significant association was found only with the practice and age of Class IV workers. Thus, the study concluded that structured teaching programme was effective in improving knowledge and practice regarding prevention of occupational health hazards.

Keywords: Class IV Workers; Occupational Health Hazards; Structured Teaching Programme; Knowledge; Practice.