Cultural Influences on Safety and Health Education Among Vietnamese Fishermen

ABSTRACT

Every ethnic group has its own cultural background and history that influences how it views health behaviors. By virtue of their work history, many Vietnamese have pursued the fishing industry when migrating to the United States. Even though the fishing trades are among the most dangerous jobs in the world, there has been little attention in the literature to the significant role that culture plays in the expression and experience of occupational health practices among Vietnamese shrimp fishermen. Three focus group sessions were conducted to identify factors that hinder or facilitate receptivity to available training and to guide culturally appropriate content. Participants were recruited using purposive sampling among various Vietnamese shrimp fishermen communities in Texas. Utilizing a series of open-ended questions, sessions were conducted in their native language among owners/captains/deckhands; support infrastructure—adult family members and religious/community leaders; and industry management and insurance representatives. Translations of transcribed documents were compared with simultaneous translations to ensure thematic consistency. Conducting hands-on training among Vietnamese by experienced fishermen, specifically targeting captains, was considered key to safety culture on the vessels. Findings of the study support that training should occur in a variety of formats (hands-on), but should be periodic, current, practical, convenient, taught in the primary language of the audience by an experienced individual, culminate in a certificate of completion, and target captains first. These findings illustrate the importance of considering cultural factors in the design of workplace interventions that focus on changes in safety and occupational health behaviors.

Keywords:

• Culture
• safety training
• shrimp fishing

The authors thank especially (1) Mr. Mike White, Commercial Fishing Vessel Safety Coordinator for USCG Eighth District, based in New Orleans at the time of the survey; (2) Leslie Hargrove, BA, CHES, Executive Director of the Coastal Area Health Education Center (AHEC), and her staff, for assistance with coordinating and carrying out the survey and the provision of translation resources; and (3) Kathleen Venable, RN, MSN, for facilitating consultation with Vietnamese nurse and nun.

This work was supported by NIOSH Cooperative Agreement 1 U50 OH07541 to Southeastern Louisiana University and University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler.