Abstract:

Various psychological, psychomotor, and physiological data related to safety and fatigue were collected from two samples of offshore oil workers to investigate the utility of safety climate and readiness data, and to develop a dashboard prototype (EMPOWER) that displays these data. Data were collected daily, at different points before and after work shifts for one month. Sample 1 consisted of 34 workers onboard a single drill ship, and data were captured between September and October of 2020. Sample 2 consisted of 36 workers onboard a different drill ship, and data were captured between July and August of 2021.

Suggested Citation:

Payne, Stephanie, Ranjana Mehta, and Farzan Sasangohar. 2023. Safety, climate, and fatigue data obtained from workers onboard a drill ship in the Gulf of Mexico. Distributed by: GRIIDC, Harte Research Institute, Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. doi:10.7266/gvkv5aye

Purpose:

Traditionally, safety culture is measured with a lengthy annual employee survey. Survey methodology is fraught with limitations including low response rates, considerable time required to summarize and interpret data, and failure to capture meaningful changes between surveys. This project aimed to develop and test field-friendly measurement tools, including experience sampling methodology and wearable devices; and to design, develop, and evaluate the value of a dashboard called EMPOWER (Evaluate, Measure, Promote Offshore Worker Engagement and Readiness). The EMPOWER dashboard will display worker psychological (safety culture) and physiological (lack of fatigue or readiness) data on an interactive interface that supervisors can access daily to support organizational decision making. The research team will evaluate the extent to which supervisors value and anticipate using such previously unavailable data in real time; as well as the data’s impact on hypothetical offshore scenario-based decision-making.

Data Parameters and Units:

A full accounting of measures, rating scales, and derived variables (e.g., mean scale scores) are available in the supplementary files. The "EMPOWER_Dataset_Manual" contains a list of measures and devices used for this study, and provides a source when appropriate. Variable and response labels have also been copied from the SPSS dataset to the manual. The manual also provides information about data cleaning decisions made when integrating more than a dozen data sources into a single master file. The "EMPOWER_Dataset_Syntax" is an SPSS syntax file that has code used to compute derived variables for the survey measures. Lastly, the "EMPOWER_Actigraph_Diary_PVT_HR_Survey_Dataset_Final" contains the final dataset, and each variable has accompanying labels that explain the different response values (e.g., 1 = 'Strongly Disagree'), as well as the full variable names. For this reason, the dataset is best viewed in SPSS, as those explanatory labels may not be available in other statistical software programs.

Methods:

Participants (N = 70) were recruited from two organizations in the oil & gas industry with offshore operations in the Gulf of Mexico. Sample 1 (n = 34) completed the study in September of 2020 and Sample 2 (n = 36) in August of 2021. Data were collected for a period of 28 days, commonly referred to in the industry as a “hitch,” during which participants lived and worked on a drillship. Participants worked 12-hour shifts daily during the entirety of their hitch. A researcher accompanied participants offshore for the first 2 weeks of each hitch to familiarize them with the study protocol, and participants completed the protocol during the remaining 2 weeks of the hitch themselves. At the beginning of the study, participants completed demographic and individual difference measures. When participants slept, they wore an Actigraph watch and completed sleep diaries upon waking. At the end of each shift, they completed a psychomotor vigilance task and responded to items related to their fatigue and safety culture. Additionally, when the researchers were present on the ship with participants, before and after each shift participants reported for heart rate measurements using an Actiheart monitor.

Individual Files: