Health and Safety in Health

Question: Discuss about theHealth and Safety in Health and Social Care. Answer: Introduction A workplace of any organization is prone to accidents and mishaps, which may affect the health and ability of the workers. Hazards are the issues responsible for occurrence of accidents and work-related ill health. Risk is the likelihood of occurrence of injury of any one in the workplace due to hazard (Hofmann et al. 2017). The report aims to identify the hazards and risks associated with the workers in the aged care centre. In this context, the report addresses the strategies used for identification of hazards. Further, the report discusses the hazards and risks in sufficient details such as source of harm and consequences. Hazards and the need to eliminate According to the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation hazard is defined as anything that can harm the health or safety of a person (AlKhudadi et al. 2014). Hazards are known to arise from the work environment, poor work design, the use of machinery and substance and inappropriate system and procedures. The five main categories of hazards (Al Jarallah and Ahmed 2016) are: Physical- light, vibration, noise Chemical- dusts or poisons Biological- plants, parasites, and viruses Electrical/mechanical- tools, electrical equipment Psychological- violence, bullying Identification of hazard and risk assessment A hazard can be identified in many ways in a workplace. For this project I have visited the nearest aged care center in my city. I have taken permission from the general manager of the care centre for direct observing and monitoring the injuries. It gave me the opportunity to inspect the workplace and consult the employees and employers. Inspecting the workplace and observation are the best strategy as it helps to clearly identify the cause of risk and hazards (Awaji and Alahmary 2016). Based on my observation I have identified the following risks in the aged care centre- HAZARD TYPICAL PROBLEMS TYPICAL INJURY/ILLNESS Handling the patients manually for assisting in daily activities Overexertion/Repetitive movement of the care workers Strains, fractures, and sprains while pushing or pulling trolleys (AlKhudadi et al. 2014) Falls The care workers may fall due to trip or slip on uneven surfaces Bruisses, fractures, dislocations, cuts, and concussion Electricity Any contact with the electrical equipments Electric shock, loss of consciousness, burns to fire, cardiac arrest Presence of hazardous materials and injury due to spillage Exposure to harmful chemicals such as acids, solvents, hydrocarbons vomiting, dizziness, respiratory problems, dermatitis, skin burn (Alqahtani et al. 2015) UV radiation and temperature Radiation exposure during sterilization in laminar air flow, effect of heat during autoclaving medical equipments for the patients, heat or cold from workplace environment Skin burn, hypothermia, (McCaughey et al. 2013) Biological Care workers are prone to needle stick, exposure to allergens, Serious allergic reaction, infection, skin rash, (Al Jarallah and Ahmed 2016) Occupational violence physical assault due to patients with manic depressive illness, conflict with patients families, physical injuries, job burnout, (Fisekovic et al. 2015) Once the hazards are identified, the next step is to assess the likeliness of the hazards. After identifying and assessing the hazards suitable control measures can be put into place to eliminate the employees risk of health and safety. According to AlKhudadi et al. (2014) the likeliness can be of four types- Very likely- the identified hazard is very likely to occur any time Likely- the identified hazard is likely to occur sometime Unlikely- the hazard may happen but very rarely Very unlikely- the hazard may probably never happen In case of the chosen aged care centre the likeliness of identified hazards are- HAZARD Likeliness Handling the patients manually Very likely Falls while mopping, vacuuming, transporting materials Very likely Electricity Unlikely Presence of hazardous materials Likely UV radiation and temperature Unlikely Biological Very likely Occupational violence Likely Al-Darrab et al. (2013) highlighted that the risk assessment matrix is an effective strategy where the hazards are rated on the scale of 6, where 1 refers to high risk and 6 refers to low risk. The risk assessment matrix for the aged care centre is give below- How severely could it hurt or make someone ill Likeliness of the risk or hazards ++ Very likely + Likely - Unlikely - - Very unlikely May cause permanent disability of the care workers or ill health 1 (due to fall, handling patient manually and biological hazards) 1 2 3 Long term injury or illness 1 (due to presence of hazardous materials, occupational violence) 2 3 4 Medical attention and several days off work 2 3 4 5 Need of first aid 3 4 5 6 Risk management The risk management aims to control the hazards in the workplace and minimize the risk of injury or illness according to Occupational and safety Health Act. There is need for the employers to develop a risk management policy to control, eliminate, or control the risk. The steps of risk management are- Hazard identification Risk assessment Risk control Monitor and improve the workplace The first two steps are already completed. Controlling the risk involves eliminating the risk and if not possible minimizes the risk using substitution, modifications, isolation or controls. The last resort is the use of personal protective equipment (Alqahtani et al. 2014). Monitor and improvement of the workplace involves reviewing the control measures to ensure their effectiveness and further refine the process. The process of review involves planning and keeping records such as details of workplace inspections, use of checklists, control measures implemented, and conducting health safety audits. The administrative controls- includes establishing appropriate administrative procedures such as routine maintenance and housekeeping procedure, training on avoiding hazards, job rotation of the care workers to reduce exposure to risk. Some of the policies in Saudi Arabia include Labour law Use of personal protective equipment- may be useful while handling harmful substances such as chemicals, solvents, or use of laminar airflow for sterilization through UV radiation. Other controls- This may include providing the care workers with sufficient equipments such as stretchers, walkers, or wheelchairs for moving the older patients as this may reduce the risk of manual handling (Awaji and Alahmary 2016). Conclusion Conclusively, there is a need of safety plan in the work place as human resources are important asset of the organization. The highest priority of the organization is wellbeing, safety, and health of all the employees. All the workers in the organization must be aware of the core problem. If an issue is persistent or not resolved by the administration, the workers should file a report that will ensure reduction of hazards and prevention of accidents in the workplace. 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