Relationship between the eye accidents in the Workshops of the Instituto Técnico Industrial Piloto in Bogotá and the mental models and consciousness levels of the students

Abstract

A survey with four open questions was carried out to 60 students of the workshops at the Instituto Técnico Industrial Piloto de Bogotá, within the humanistic approach in Occupational Health in order to know students’ perceptions regarding individual factors that may cause eye accidents and also to determine the most prevailing mental models and their levels of consciousness in relation to accidents. A qualitative analysis, based on the triangulation of information, was carried out using categories and subcategories in the answers. Besides, a quantitative analysis was applied to this qualitative data trough descriptive statistics. It was found that self-care is important for students. They say that they have not had any accidents because of their experience in the workshop and because they follow the protection and security regulations for their eyes. Consciousness levels are important within the mental models seen in their answers. For example, the magic model was seen in the following answer: «because you are lucky or because you are cautious with things»; the rigid and regulatory model was appreciated in the statement: «because in this workshop it is important to follow the rules»; and the critic consciousness was expressed in the following answers: «because of safety and to care my visual and physical health», «to take care of myself and not hurt me», «because an accident may suddenly happen and it may causes us serious injuries». Finally, it is important to evaluate students’ individual factors to plan any training or program related to dangerous situations, risks and eye accidents.