I am Raymond D. Papa, a registered nurse in the Philippines. I am currently in my 12th year of practice as an Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) professional. I am currently an OSH consultant, an Occupational Health Nurse Specialist (OHNS), and an assistant professor in the college of nursing one of the local colleges in the country.

My contributions in OSH for year 2023 is being a Board of Trustee of the Occupational Health Nurses Association of the Philippines (OHNAP) Inc. As a member of the Board, I served as its Vice President, Chairperson of the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Committee, and its OSH Consultant.

I lead the development of the organisation’s first Advanced Occupational Safety and Health (ACOSH) Training for Occupational Health Nurses, lead the development of its CPD policies, guidelines, and procedures, ensuring that all nurses practicing OSH receives the highest quality of training. I also represent OHNAP in the Philippine Professional Nursing Roadmap Coalition 2030 and the country’s Department of Health’s Healthy Workplace Initiative, leading the ongoing development of toolkits in providing a healthy and safe workplace.

As an assistant professor, I developed the syllabus on its subject Decent Work and Transcultural Nursing, incorporating OSH as part of providing decent work for nurses, teaching them about OSH, risk management, job hazard analysis, etc. As an OSH consultant, I developed the OSH management system of Subic Bay Travelers Hotel & Event Center in a freeport zone in the country. I also serve as speaker at national conventions and conferences for OSH. I served as speaker for its 2023 midyear conference, in which I delivered two topics, my research study on nursing care plan utilisation in occupational health practice and wound management in the workplace. I also presented on vaccination convention organised by a pharmaceutical company. I also presented in the Safety Organization of the Philippines, Inc.’s national convention, highlighting occupational health services and calling for OSH professionals to do research and continuously uplift the OSH profession by building body of knowledge to advance the discipline. I also served as a reactor/panelist during the Central Luzon OSH Network celebration of World Day for Safety and Health at Work. As an assistant professor, I advocated for OSH by highlighting the importance of disaster and emergency preparedness and response in the workplace.

For OHNAP, I have developed the ACOSH training programme and collaborated with colleagues from various government and non-government organisations who have served as speakers in providing the best training for nurses. The training programme was first implemented in June 2023.

For Subic Bay Travelers Hotel & Event Center, since I came back in March 2023 as its consultant, I have reassessed its current OSH situation and updated its OSH management system and ensured that it is tailor fitted to the needs of its workers. Controls and mechanisms that were left unattended during my leave were put back in place. It was also the time wherein the heat stress prevention and control programme was put in place because it was that time of the year wherein the heat index was at high risk. Work environment and employee monitoring was conducted daily and the controls were put in place. The workers were also trained on preventing and managing heat-related conditions in the workplace.

In the college where I teach, I began exposing my students to various working conditions. I thought them industrial hygiene, risk management, toxicology, etc. They were given various activities focusing on health and safety of workers in the formal and informal sector.

For the ACOSH training, the programme has yielded good results as I have conducted impact evaluation. Most of the participants emphasised the applicability of the training programme in their respective industries and practice. The year 2023 has also increased my network because of my continuous exposure to national conventions, scientific meetings, and conferences. I have been doing free consultations for OSH professionals since I became an OSH consultant in 2020. The previous year has further increased my network and I am really glad to be of help to OSH professionals. The CPD policies, guidelines, and procedures that I have led to develop last year has ensured that the organisation has a CPD system in place and that programmes being offered by the organisation on a national scale will ensure uplifting the knowledge, skills, and values of OSH professionals. In the workplace, the OSH management system that was put in place and maintained resulted in zero occupational accidents and illnesses. In my work as an assistant professor, the nursing licensure examination has test questions including OSH such as fire safety, ventilation, occupational diseases, and my students were able to answer the questions.

I believe my initiatives, especially the ACOSH training and my talk on conventions and conferences has impacted the industry a lot. First, the ACOSH training is the first of its kind to be offered by the organisation in its 73 years of existence. Feedback from the participants is really good since the topics being offered are advanced in nature. This training programme that I have led developed affected not only the community but on a national level. No other organisation in the country has offered this kind of training to date. The trainers for this training programme are of high caliber as well, mostly coming from University of the Philippines and are esteemed practitioners and consultants. Also, incorporating OSH motivated nursing students to take OSH for their specialty. The Philippines is lacking occupational health professionals, since most nurses in the country choose to go abroad for greener pastures.

A safety influencer recognises both health and safety as co-existing in the workplace. Whether you are a nurse, an engineer, a physician, or an environment expert, you address all OSH issues in the workplace. A safety influencer does not only aspire to influence the community, but also wants to make a change on a country level. He/she must contribute to building a better society through advancing the profession, developing training programmes, and attending consultative meetings to develop national policies and initiatives to protect the workers. A safety influencer does not only work in large scale industries. He/she makes change even in micro to small scale industries because these workers are the most vulnerable and lacks access to OSH services. A safety influencer shares his/her knowledge in conferences, encourages OSH professionals to advance the profession by doing research. A safety influencer inspires students to practice OSH. Teaching is the best opportunity as they may not choose OSH as their profession, but they will develop the knowledge, skills, and values of OSH and protect themselves from suffering from occupational accidents or acquiring occupational diseases. An OSH professional does not only settle in one workplace but must also contribute to society.