Experiences in biomechanical risk management training in different countries by the Spanish EPM International Ergonomics School

Introduction  The Spanish OCRA School was founded in Barcelona in 2005, in collaboration with the EPM research unit. The main goal of this School is to develop standardized training programs in Spanish spoken countries about methodologies for ergonomics risks management, specially dealing problems related to repetitive tasks and tasks evolving manual handling loads. Recently, this School has become to the current EPM International Ergonomics School for Spanish speakers.  

Methodology For developing training courses about applied ergonomics, theoretical and practical research is needed, mainly guided by discussion meetings where the analysis of real cases derives new hypotheses. This way of working shared with EPM unit, based on “from practice to theory”, has permitted to define new methodological criteria to assess risks and to define useful practical criteria to facilitate the work of technicians.   To implement these methodologies in several countries where differences regarding to cultural aspects, activity sectors, legal frameworks and professional profiles are found, a previous analysis of these factors and adaptation of tools, language and materials are required. However, working in different contexts has permitted to collect different experiences finally resulting in an improvement of the proposed methodologies.  

Results Since the founding of the School more than 35 courses in several Spanish-speaking countries have been given, training more than 450 professionals. Additionally, these methodologies to manage ergonomic risks have been successfully implemented in large companies in various sectors.  

Conclusion Organizational, cultural and legislative differences between countries are factors to consider when implementing ergonomics risk management methodologies. A detailed analysis of these factors and a dissemination and awareness plan in each country has allowed developing training programs and implementing these methods successfully in companies. The interpretation of methodologies that demonstrate positive results improving productivity and working conditions is the same in different cultures.