Assessment of navigators’ ergonomic awareness and working conditions on navigation bridges

Background: Merchant ships, despite huge technological progress, are still operated by qualified navigators. According to ergonomics principles, human is a part of the whole system and is affected by the surrounding environment. Objective: The purpose of the paper was to assess the ergonomic awareness of professional navigators, to understand their expectations towards navigation bridges and to check if they obtain enough support from their workplace. Methods: A special questionnaire was developed and 200 responses were obtained from seafarers with license of Officer Of the Watch or higher. Statistical analysis were carried out to find out relationships and differences between answers and groups of respondents. Results: Improper ergonomics and less than optimal working conditions were not isolated incidents and occurred to be rather common problem of the industry. The results suggest that ergonomic awareness is at relatively high level, however this knowledge is frequently not used in practice. Conclusions: Poor design and lack of proper ergonomics training might contribute to commonly experienced signs of fatigue, pain episodes and therefore reduced performance of seafarers. Navigators find ergonomics important, however navigation bridges often do not meet ergonomics and comfort standards, therefore there is still a room for improvement in this area.