Managing health and Safety Processes in Healthcare (Essay Sample)

Managing health and Safety Processes in Healthcare
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Introduction
Risk management within the workplace takes into account the process of identifying and addressing both potential, as well as actual risk facing the workers in the course of their duties (Boychuk 2009). Taking this into consideration, risk management should put a lot of emphases on practical steps for the purpose of protecting workers from suffering, and also real harm. A risk management program in healthcare that is sensible should consider ensuring that employees together with the public are protected well. In addition, it should put into consideration enabling the workers to fully understand their rights when it comes to the safety of employees in the workplace (Turner 2011). There are various risks in healthcare sectors that call for proper control measures to control and prevent them.
Risks in Healthcare
Healthcare sectors are considered to be among the most hazardous places to work. Workers employed in hospitals usually deal a wide variety of activities which pose a significant threat to their health (Turner 2011). In addition, these activities usually put them at high risk of work-related accidents and occupational diseases. Most of the settings in which hospital and health care workers all over the world carry out their duties, together with the complexity of the tasks that they perform usually present a wide variety of hazards (Glarum, Birou & Cetaruk, 2009).
The nature of work of healthcare workers, whether handling patients, providing cleaning services and delivering frontline care for patients, makes it of paramount importance that health and safety is something to put into consideration in this sector (Colling & York 2009). There is a wide range of risks that health workers face during their line of duty. They include biological risks, chemical risks, physical risks, ergonomic risks and psychological risks.
Biological risks
The most common biological risk is the infections which are caused by needlestick injuries (Youngberg 2008). It is true that workers in the health care sector are usually as a significant risk of sharp or needlestick injury. These injuries become issues of concerns because workers may become victim of blood-borne pathogens through infection. These include viruses, fungi, bacteria and other microorganisms. Hepatitis B and HIV/AIDS are among the most common forms of risks associated with the needlestick injury (Youngberg 2008). Measures to prevent needlestick injuries include elimination the use of sharps when it is unnecessary, provision of medical devices, incorporating safety, banning of recapping, use of protective devices, vaccination and through information and training of workers (Colling & York 2009). The aim of these measures is to provide safe working environment through preventing injuries to health care workers caused by medical sharps. In addition, the objective considers protecting healthcare workers in the hospital and the healthcare sector at large.
Chemical risks
Chemical risks occur when workers get exposed to hazardous chemicals including disinfectants, pesticides, and other hazardous drugs found in the workplace (Stellman 2008). In order to prevent and minimize cases of chemical risks in healthcare sector, the hospital should consider providing material safety data sheet for all the chemicals that are hazardous. They should also be training of healthcare workers on potential chemical hazards, as well as control measures that are necessary for the aim of preventing chemical hazards in the workplace. There should be proper labelling of hazardous chemicals such as those present in pesticides, soaps and disinfectants (Stellman 2008). Lastly, there should be provision of handling gloves and aprons when handling hazardous chemicals.
Physical risks
Ionizing radiation is one of the most common physical risks that healthcare workers subject themselves while dealing with machines and equipments in the hospital (Kim 2012). On this, radiations especially the x-rays usually pose a significant risk to the healthcare worker, as continuous subjection to these rays can result to complications such as cancer. Taking this into consideration, effective control measures need to be put in place for the purpose of preventing these risks (Kim 2012). One of the protective measures is providing necessary effective protective devices. The radiographer should also consider measuring the intensity of the radiations in order to determine the right threshold.
Psychological Risks
Psychological risks in healthcare setting mostly involve physical and verbal assault of healthcare workers when conducting their duties. This takes the form of violence which affects the workers psychologically (Stellman 2008). Although any worker in the hospital can be a victim of violence, research indicates that aides and nurses are more susceptible due to their frequent interaction with the patient. In order to prevent violence which may cause psychological problems to the health workers, employers should consider developing a safety health program which includes employee participation, management commitment, safety training, and reporting (Stellman 2008). On these, the hospitals should take into account developing emergency signalling and monitoring systems. In additions, they should consider developing systems or alerting the security department in case of violence or threat (Reilly & Markenson 2011).
Ergonomic Risks
Ergonomic risks are risks which mostly involves the hazards that workers expose themselves to when handling the patients (Fagerhaugh 2009). On this, workers may get exposed to various work related disorders from ergonomic stressors which have not been properly identified, and also addressed in a health program and facilities safety. Activities such as bathing, feeding, bathing, and toileting involve various forms of interactions between the patient and healthcare workers. This implies that the healthcare worker becomes susc...