Question

Consider your current jobs. Discuss their safety and health risks-

consider different dimensions of health (physical, mental, social, spiritual, intellectual).

Does/Did your employer do anything to reduce hazards? If you were the boss, what strategies would you implement to protect your employees?

Answer 1

I am currently working as a staff nurse in intensive care unit. ICU is a place where patients who are serious or sick due to their medical conditions get admitted. It is one the units in the hospital where safety for the patient as well as for the healthcare providers are needed in high standards because the risk / hazardous factors are more in ICUs .

# Safety factors which are provided in the ICU are:-

- Proper supply of personal protective equipments to function properly

- We are provided training on safe practices every month to keep us aware and use those safe practices in practical care to avoid injuries like needle stick injury etc.

- Provision of safe working equipments to about injury related to any mechanical cause and every month these machines are monitored for safe working by the technical persons.

- Hand washing before and the key movements like for example before touching the patient , after touching the patient and body fluids etc

- Has a spill management team

# Health risks in the ICU are :-

- Chances of needle stick injury

- Transmission of some communicable diseases

- Mechanical injury like shocks , malfunctioned equipment with sharp ends

- Physical injuries like fall , muscle injury etc due to heavy workload caused during transportation of patients ,positioning of patients etc

- Radiational hazards because nurses accompany the patient's for CT ,MRI scan .

- Mental stress due to the workload ,and seeing the patient's in extremely pain .

Yes ,the employer plays an important role to reduce the hazards and to safeguard his staffs by providing all the resources which are required to provide care , conduct sessions for mental relaxation , hold meeting every month to deal with staff problems regarding duty.

# If I were the boss ,then the strategies used by me to protect the employees would be the following measures :-

- First thing is use of a Democratic leadership style ,which will allow the staffs to express their views and concerns freely .

- No forcing of the staffs to do the work

- A person has to mentally and physically fit to work efficiently . There will provision of sessions of Yoga and meditation in weekends to stress out and relax .

- Provision of all the resources which are required by staff like mask ,gown ,gloves enough in supply to work efficiently.

- Making the duty roaster in such way that it does not put the staffs under stress ,and avoid double duties and offs in-between duty days .

- Classes and training on the topics in which staffs have an issue regarding practical care ,and classes will be taken by the staffs itself so that they can learn easily and it will make them more confident in the practical field .