Health And Safety At The Workplace

One of the practice concerns is Safe staffing level –identify that safe staffing can impact the safety and quality of patient care. Unseemly staffing level jeopardize patient health and safety causing nurse pressure , fatigue , injury and decrease ability to distribute patient safe care Nurses enveloped the largest health care workforce in most countries. Few reasons why nurses left the work force due to unsafe staffing level. Nurses felt overworked and underpaid. Sometimes they cannot take off on special or emergent situation, schedules are not fairly approved, or just simply other people need change. These are few reasons, but influential reasons, nurses are burned out and overworked. A safe staffing ratio of 1 nurse to 6-7 patients in

Safe staffing has been a big problem for many years, especially in emergency departments, but not much has been done about it. Wolf, Perhats, Delao, Clark and Moon (2017) attempt to figure out what emergency department nurses feel are the biggest things affecting safe staffing and what they can do to fix it. They also discuss the effects of unsafe staffing on both patients and emergency department nurses.

The aim of this assignment is to portray knowledge and understanding of all aspects of Safety and Health while working as a nurse in a hospital environment. All employees must comply and familiarise themselves with legislation and acts. These acts include The Safety, Health and Welfare Act 2005 and The manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992. Employers must “ Ensure the safety, health and welfare at work of his or her employees, manage and conduct work activities in such a way as to ensure the safety, health and welfare at work of all employees, manage and conduct work activities in such a way as to prevent any improper conduct or behaviour likely to endanger employees, provide information, instruction, training and supervision,

The Electricity at Work Regulations, is imposed to limit the risk of any accidents regarding electricity in a workplace it requires all electrical equipment to be used correctly and in a safe manner. It also requires the employer to carry out safety checks on the electrical equipment and tested on a routine basis (PAT) portable appliance test. All equipment must show that they have been tested by a qualified electrician by showing the pass or fail sticker, this should clearly show the appliance ID, pass or fail date, the engineer, next due PAT. Employers should also ensure that all staff are trained in using the electrical equipment and all staff must cooperate with the training that they were provided with.

Patient safety is a rising problem in healthcare. People are beginning to look at hospitals and providers safety scores so they choose the right organization to receive their care at. Unhealthy work environments contribute to medical errors, ineffective care delivery, and conflict among health care professionals. The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) recognizes six standards for creating a healthy work environment. They developed these standards to advocate for

The patient problems of safety and quality care are applicable across the health care continuum. In a report released by the International Council of Nurses (2013) results from several research articles in support of the purpose for your proposed project are summarized. For example; in a multi-year study “increased workload, and unstable nursing unit environments were linked to negative patient outcomes including falls and medication errors …” (Duffield et al., 2011, p. 244). Specifically, researcher found “Lower levels of RN staffing are associated with higher rates of OPSN—urinary tract infections, pneumonia, shock and cardiac arrest, upper gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding, failure to rescue—and

Workplace violence, is an issue often encountered but rarely discussed or focused on. Workplace violence includes physical assault, verbal or written threats, harassment and homicide (“Workplace Violence, “2017). Per ANA website, OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) does not require organizations to have prevention programs in regards to workplace violence. From experience, we know how fast situations can escalate and it is important that we have a governing body that protects us. Nurses are more likely not to report due to fear of unemployment or that nothing will happen after reporting (Kvas & Seljak, 2014). A bill passed in December 2015, gave protection for healthcare personnel injured while providing care and their assailants could be charged with a felony offense. (“Association of perioperative…,” 2015). Federally, there is not much direction or leadership in regards to workplace violence outside of hospitals. There are several organizations involving nurses in leadership, emergency medicine and perioperative nursing but not many organizations associated with community health nursing. It is important to look on state and local levels to see where we can assist in ensuring nurses in organizations other than hospitals feel safe while working. I believe it is important to work together to achieve a common goal geared towards the improvement of the nursing profession.

The goal of a nurse is to promote holistic health and well-being for their clients as well as educate and carry out preventive measures to protect clients from illness and injury. Safety is an issue that can protect both nurses themselves as well as their clients and surrounding community. Ergonomics of nurses and performing in a manner of proper technique protects the nurse directly and the client indirectly. Training for terrorism also affects both nurse and client. Researchers and organizations spend large amounts of time and money to determine the most effective methods and technology to ensure safety and continue the vision of improved nursing care.

“The delegation of the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) is to challenge nurses of their knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSA) for continuous improvement for the quality and safety of the healthcare systems where they work. Ensuring safe care is a fundamental value and ethical responsibility of the nursing profession (International Council of Nurses, 2000).” All nurses should be well educated to understand that safety reduces the possibility of injury to the patients and providers; and after they are educated on safety they should implement the standards in their everyday practice along with helping to research on ways to improve safety measures.

Nurses are also adversely affected by unsafe staffing in many ways. Nurses go to school for many

The number one goal in the field of medicine should be patient safety. According to Hospital Safety Score, “as many as 440,000 people die every year from preventable errors in hospitals,” (http://www.hospitalsafetyscore.org). These errors include healthcare-associated infections, medication errors and injuries such as patient falls. Therefore, with nursing staff having a direct influence over patient safety, nursing-sensitive indicators were introduced and developed to protect patients from injury, thus enhancing patient care. These “indicators reflect the structure, process, and patient outcomes of nursing care,” (American Nurses Association, 2010). Currently, there is a list of indicators that are implemented into nursing practice

Workplace injuries and violence, of course, are not the fault of the nurse. They are system-wide problems that need to be addressed at many different levels. The American Nurses Association, for instance, recently released a set of interprofessional safe patient handling and mobility

In any occupational environment, regardless of location and setting, employees will always be exposed some type of hazards or risk. Some hazards might small while others might be large and life threaten and the proper the precaution needs to be taking while facing or handling hazards materials. In any medical facilities around the country, the exposures to physical or chemical hazards are extremely high. Hospitals and medical facilities are traditionally risky environment to work in. Experience working in a clinic and hospital setting has proven that injury rates at medical facilities are higher than most other occupational settings. Slips, trips, and falls

“Nurses are more likely to be attacked at work than prison guards or police officer” (Canadian Nursing Advisory Committee) 2002) .Safe working environment plays a vital role for providing quality nursing care .violence against nurses of any kind can cause hamper in achieving personal, professional as well as organizational goal So it is major concern in nursing profession. According to CCOHS “workplace violence is any act in which a person is abused, threatened, intimidated or assaulted in his or her employment. Workplace violence includes threatening behaviors, verbal or written threats, verbal and physical attacks. Similarly “Workplace harassment” in the OSHA means “engaging in a course of vexatious comment or conduct against a worker in a workplace that is known or ought reasonably to be known to be unwelcome”. Violence against nurses is major issue. RNAO takes a zero tolerance approach to violence in the workplace and CAN and CFNU strongly support it. Different organizations and the government are actively involving for making safe

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all who have helped me in completion of my CAPSTONE PROJECT First of all I express my heartfelt gratitude to our Management for having given me a chance to do my CAPSTONE PROJECT at AL Mafraq Hospital .