One of our members, Mitchell Horan (ProfNZISM), has completed his Postgraduate Diploma in Health Science (OHS) and is now studying to complete a Master of Health Science (OHS) degree through Massey University.

Mitchell is required to undertake research to complete his Masters and is seeking experienced professionals willing to engage in qualitative discussions from the following industries:

• construction
• manufacturing
• oil & gas
• forestry
• mining

The research supervisor for Mitchell's project is Dr. Ravi Reddy.

Please read the Invitation below and if you are interested in taking part in this research, email Mitchell direct at mitchellhoran77@gmail.com

You can take an advance look at the Question Guide.

Invitation

I am seeking participation from 6-8 Health and Safety professionals in high-risk industries to engage in exploratory conversations regarding Energy Based Safety (EBS) and Serious Injury and Fatality (SIF) prevention, supporting my Masters research. These discussions aim to gather qualitative insights and thematic perspectives from participants.

I am particularly interested in engaging New Zealand-based HSE professionals across sectors like construction, manufacturing, oil & gas, forestry, or mining. The focus will be on understanding your knowledge, awareness and practical experiences related to energy control and SIF prevention concepts, either through application or ongoing implementation efforts.

I want to hear your successes, challenges and suggestions.

Project description

This research project aims to contribute practical, New Zealand-specific insights to the growing community of practice focused on SIF prevention. Through semi-structured, online interviews, the study will explore how Health and Safety professionals understand and apply EBS concepts in high-risk industries. By capturing the lived experiences, knowledge and awareness of professionals working in high-energy environments, this research seeks to uncover meaningful patterns and themes that can help shape safer, more effective approaches to injury prevention.

I am seeking experienced HSE professionals with industry experience in construction, manufacturing, oil & gas, forestry, or mining to share their valuable perspectives. Whether you’ve applied these concepts, are in the process of implementation, or have led a shift toward more evidence-based, energy-based performance-driven safety systems, your insights are welcomed. The conversations will be relaxed and open-ended, focusing on what really happens in your world of work. This is an opportunity to reflect, share and help advance how we manage high-energy hazards and prevent life altering incidents in New Zealand’s most critical work environments.

Data will be sourced through recorded, online interviews which will undergo a thematic analysis process to identify and interpret patterns in the Health and Safety professionals' understanding of EBS and SIF prevention concepts, and the practical implementation of these. Participation is completely voluntary and can be withdrawn at any time, up to 2 weeks after completion of interviews. No names will be used in any reports, and scientific outputs.

Participant identification and recruitment

Participation will be engaged primarily via the researcher's personal networks (eg. LinkedIn) or peer recommendations. Preference will be given to participants who hold at least 5 years of experience as a Health and Safety advisor or manager. In addition, (ideally) you will:

• currently work in a Health and Safety management related role for an organisation which conducts work that exposes workers to verifiable sources of high energy on a regular/semi regular basis (i.e., hazards which can cause SIFs if not effectively managed), and
• understand the concept of (or have prior experience in) Energy Based Safety to support effective Health and Safety systems design, implementation, monitoring or reporting to support SIF prevention.

Data collection

The interviews will be conducting online using Microsoft Teams and will be recorded to produce a verbatim transcript for the record. Interviews will be approximately 1hr duration, and participants will be required to complete and acknowledge their consent for transcript recording in advance of the interview.

All information received will be collectively transcribed, edited for grammar and anonymised.

Data management

Only the researcher and supervisor will have access to the data. Software transcribed data will be manually checked and edited as necessary. The participants will be informed that the interviews are recorded and transcribed and consent gained.

Ethical review

This project has been evaluated by peer review and judged to be low risk. Ethics approval number 4000030082. Consequently, it has not been reviewed by one of the University’s Human Ethics Committees.

The researcher(s) named above are responsible for the ethical conduct of this research. If you have any concerns about the conduct of this research that you wish to raise with someone other than the researcher(s), please contact the Director, Research Ethics, email humanethics@massey.ac.nz