Injury In The Healthcare Industry Analysis

Each health care employer shall upon request, make available their findings and data for at least 5 years; 5) post a uniform notice that explains the standard and the procedures to report patient handling-related injuries. The notice must explains procedures to report patient handling-related injuries; and explains health care workers’ rights under this Act, including any whistleblower protections. Each health care employer shall conduct an annual written evaluation of the implementation of their programs.

Needle Sharps injuries (NSI) in Australia. What can do about better safety practices to reduce injury to healthcare providers

Needle Sharps injuries (NSI) in Australia. How can safety practices be improved to reduce injury to healthcare providers.

For too long, people have been sustaining unintentional injury and death in hospital due to falls. The most heartfelt are the elderly, cognitive impaired patients, and feeble patients. Fall in the hospital is one of the most crucial patient safety issues. Most times nurses do not take adequate measures to prevent this. According to Shuey and Balch (2014) the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention reported that approximately 26,000 deaths were attributed to unintentional falls. This statistics is alarming. Do we fold our arms and watch for people to continue to get injured and die? No, there is the need to prevent hospital falls among the elderly, cognitive challenged patients, and fragile patients and something has to be done about it now. It is crucial to address this issue now to maintain the core value of nursing profession.

Nursing and healthcare continue to change on a daily basis. The one thing that has remained constant during these changes is maintaining the safety of our patients. By maintaining their safety, nurses must ensure that they are keeping up-to-date with the changes in technology now being introduced in healthcare, new and emerging diseases, new equipment, and changes in treatment modalities. One such responsibility is ensuring that nurses do not operate equipment they were not oriented to or trained to use in an effort to prevent injury patients. Nurses and other healthcare professionals are being held accountable for practicing within their scope of practice based on their licensure regulations, and the company policies and procedures. Therefore, nurses are responsible for their professional growth and practice by ensuring that they comply with the necessary standards required by their profession.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2011, para. 2) defines a sharps injury as, “a penetrating stab wound from a needle, scalpel, or other sharp object that may result in exposure to blood or other body fluids.” Different types of sharps include intravenous cannulas, butterfly needles, hypodermic needles, phlebotomy needles, lancets, scalpels, suture needles, razors, scissors, tissues, and fragments of bone (Weston, 2013, p.208). Sharps injuries affect a great number of health care professionals in the workplace . It is estimated that

Despite the national, state, local regulations in place injuries are at an all-time high worldwide. These statements lead us to a startling conclusion in order to provide safe and effective patient care we have to provide safe working conditions for our staff.

The real world problem that I chose to address, is the incidence of musculoskeletal injuries amongst nursing staff due to unsafe patient handling. I chose this issue because, inadequate and inappropriate safe patient handling practices lead to an increase in work related injuries, restricted work days, and hospital costs. This is a challenging issue to solve because for over four decades, nurses have held the record for the highest job-related injuries of all healthcare workers (OSHA, 2014). Furthermore, despite the fact that seventy-five percent of nurses have access to safe patient handling and mobility equipment, thousands of injuries continue to occur each year. "Inadequate and inappropriate safe patient handling practices have

Ensuring patient safety is an important issue in our healthcare system. Although hospitals strive to be a safe place for patients to be cared for, many adverse events occur each year. In nursing usage, an adverse event is an injury resulting from a patient’s medical management rather than from the underlying condition itself (Thefreedictionary.com, 2012). Examples of adverse events can include human factors, such as fatigue and depression, and medication errors. According to the Institute of Medicine’s 2000 report,

Working in the health care field can be extremely rewarding, but it’s not without risk. Health care has one of the highest rates of workplace injuries of any industry. Law Office of Morrison, Webster & Carlton, workers' compensation attorneys with offices in Springfield and Joplin, MO, explain that, although these injuries are often not as dramatic and obvious as those suffered in other professions, they can be extremely serious, and result in long-term pain or even permanent disability.

Musculoskeletal injuries represent a significant occupational problem among nurses. In health care settings, injuries are very common among nurses and other healthcare workers on the job. In the U.S. healthcare industries, the rates of injuries in the healthcare profession is highest. Unfortunately, healthcare workers are always at risk of suffering many different types of physical harm on the job. Workers can also be injured by a variety of people or things they encounter on a daily basis in their jobs. These injuries usually occur from manual lifting, moving and repositioning, or ambulation of patients. Nurses Association (ANA) has declared that Safe Patient Handling and Mobility (SPHM) is a top health and safety concern for both nurses and

Nurses are constantly facing health risks every day they are at work. I feel as a student with goals set to become a nurse I should be fully aware of all the things that could potentially go wrong. I want to make sure I am knowledgeable about the nursing field, because I never would have thought injuries happen as often in the field of nursing today compared to decades ago when there was less machinery. The Department of Labor’s Bureau of Statistics (BLS) explains that surveys show 35,000 back injuries happen every year among nurses and are severe enough to prevent going to work (Zwerdling, par. 9). Zwerdling writes about a nurse getting injured on the job while lifting an overweight patient. She damaged a disk in her spine while lifting

Needle stick and sharps injuries are the dangerous hazards for any medical personnel. Sharp objects can contain pathogens like hepatitis virus, HIV, which pose death risk. The additional explosion to the blood-borne pathogen includes sudden bleeding or wound care. Immunization is a required procedure, but it only can protect from hepatitis B illnesses. The company requires having a vaccination against hep B. Some research stated that most healthcare workers don’t follow standards and protocols and don’t report the injuries. All our workers need to report any injuries, which related to blood-borne pathogens. The organization establish practice control and reduce worker’s exposure by providing personal protective clothing and equipment, and specialized

When you experience an injury at work, whether it originates from repetitive motion or improper lifting techniques, chiropractic care and complementary services can help you manage your pain and get back on the job sooner. Untreated sprains, strains and muscle injuries may lead to additional stress on your body. Likewise, giving in to your pain, altering your gait and failing to maintain proper posture all prolong pain in the affected area and may enforce pain in other areas.

Patients’ safety is a priority in today’s health care system. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced that hospitals will no longer be reimbursed for certain nosocomial conditions, thus placing a great demand on healthcare systems to prevent hospital-acquired health related injuries such as falls (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2008). Nosocomial conditions, such as falls are conditions that are preventable that occur in the clinical or hospital setting. A fall is an unexpected event in which the participant comes to rest on the ground, floor, or lower level (Amador & Loera, 2006). Fall related accidents, injuries and death remain a major problem among hospitalized patients. It is estimated that one out of three adult patients over the age of 65 will fall (CDC, 2014). Falls have detrimental effects and impact on patients’ health and outcome as well as hospitalizations costs. Falls have attributed to broken bones, fractured hips, fear of walking alone, brain trauma, and even death. In 2012, the direct medical costs of older adult falls were $30 billion (CDC, 2014). According to Tzeng, Yin, & Grunawalt (2008), even the length of stay is affected, with inpatient falls with injury resulting in a 7.5-day increase in total length of stay. The attributed cost of falls, increased in injuries and prolonged hospital stay have a great impact on Advanced Practice Nurses’ (APNs) practice. The focus of this paper is to discuss evidenced-based