The Pros And Cons Of OSHA

Health and safety at work act 1974 and 1992: This act is put into place for all places of employments. All employees have a duty of care to provide for the staff, ensuring that all equipment is safe and it does not have any risk. Employee, staff and volunteers have to take care of themselves and others around them.

The main features of the Health and Safety at Work Act (1974) is that it requires certain health and safety procedures to be maintained in a health and social care setting, for example, the act explains that there must be, safe operation and maintenance of working equipment, plant and system, maintenance of safe access to the workplace, safe use, handling and storage of dangerous/hazardous substances, training of staff to ensure that there is health and safety, to provide welfare for staff at work.

The Supreme Court was requested to rule on the cotton dust standard using the OSHA’s mandate under section 3(8) whose objective was to protect workers from the exposure of hazardous materials. In the Department of Industrial Union, the Benzene decision decided by a divided court invalidated the OSHA 's benzene standard. According to the judges, OSHA had to base its findings on substantial evidence rather than mere assumptions. These records should show that occupational exposure to the regulated substance presents significant health risk (Schulte, et al., 2014).

As health care workers we are under a legal obligation to protect an individual from any kind of abuse, whether it is physical, financial, emotional, sexual or psychological .Legislation, policies and procedures exist to promote a safer working environment and reduce the potential for risks occurring. They are tailored for the needs of each setting, known and understood by employers and employees and reviewed on a regular basis.

Legislations/codes of practice relating to general health and safety in a health or social care work setting are: The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974; Riddor 1995, COSHH (Control of Substances Hazardous to Health); Manual Handling operations regulations 1992; Health And Safety (First aid regulations 1981); Fire protection (Workplace) Regulations 1997; Food Safety Act 1990; Personal Protective Equipment and Management of Health and safety at work regulations 1999.

The Occupational Health & Safety Act was introduced in 1979 and provides organizations with a legal framework to deal with workplace health and safety issues. The Act deals with the rights and responsibilities of work parties, and provides services to assist organizations in maintaining health standards to prevent workplace accidents. Under this act, the government also conducts research studies, gathers statistics on occupational accidents, and develops educational programs to encourage occupational health and safety.

The main features of the health and safety at work act is that it provides a framework for ensuring that all employees are in and a health and safety environment. The employer and staff have duty to ensure the health and safety not only of themselves but also other persons who may frequent the premises, such as children and their parents. Employees are due undertake an approved first aid course and a named person should be appointed to take charge in the event of an accident. As well as this, properly stocked first aid kit should be available – no medication should be kept in the first aid kit. In regards to a healthcare setting, this ensures that children and elderly are looked after as they may not be able to independently.

There are many legislation acts relating to health and safety. These include :- • Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 • Control of Substances Hazardous to Health regulation (COSHH) • Manual Handling legislation 1992 • Reporting of injuries, dies eases and dangerous occurrences regulations (RIDDOR) • Food Safety Act 1990 • Health and Safety First Aid Regulations 1981 1.2 The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 states the employer, employees and service users have a responsibility to ensure safety is well maintained in your place of work. Policies and procedures protect people by providing a set of rules and regulations that must be followed by care staff and organisations.

In this task I will be describing how health and safety legislation, policies and procedures promotes the safety of individuals in a Hospital. Quality care is an important issue for both health care workers and their partners. Government continue to work on implementing staffing law that will upgrade the medical systems. Hospitals are required to provide security for patients and staff. Mechanical equipment, housekeeping, administrative and food staff play important roles in preventing all environmental hazards. Safety concerns surrounding these hazards include injury, illness, disease exposure, disaster

Workplace safety is a major issue faced by nurses in healthcare settings. It is said that, hospitals are hazardous workplaces; unsafe workplaces are dangerous for the patients too. Today, many nurses are suffering hospital violence, heavy workloads causing serious injuries, contracting diseases caused by exposures to certain diseases, antineoplastics, and certain health care toxins, that workers bring home to their families. This in turn leads to acute staff shortages. Ample supply of nurses is very important in providing safe and timely care to the patient population. Maintaining a healthy workplace will enable the healthcare systems to control costs associated with healthcare management as well as enhancing the productivity of nurses in health care. It is estimated that creating a healthy environment in the workplace not only benefit nurses, but also benefits patients and other members of the health care team. This report explains some of the safety issues existing in health care, which directly or indirectly affects nurses as well as the health of the Canadian population.

The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), often referred to as the "OSH Act," was enacted in 1970 by President Richard M. Nixon. Its purpose is to assure safe and healthful working conditions for men and women (EPA, 2006). The Act is administered and enforced at the national level by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, a division of the US Department of Labor. The application of the OSH Act in the current employment climate will be discussed as it applies to a variety of industries; considerations that are most applicable to the specific type of industry will be discussed initially, and those that are equally important regardless of the type of business will complete the section. Finally, this paper will discuss how the

On December 2016, Democratic United States Representative John Conyers Jr., who represents Michigan’s 14th District, introduced national legislation for the third time that calls for a national standard for the safe handling of dependent patients and residents throughout the healthcare system. H.R. 4266, The Nurse and Health Care Worker Protection Act of 2015, directs the Secretary of Labor to issue an occupational safety and health standard to reduced injuries to patients, direct-care registered nurses and all other healthcare workers” by establishing a safe patient handling and injury prevention standard , and for other purposes” (H.R. 4266, 2015). The standard specifies “the use of engineering controls to perform lifting, transferring,

Policies Policies are statements which are written to describe how an organisation intends to function in terms of good practice’ (Richards and Ford, 2010). Having policies in place at a GP surgery can promote a positive care environment by protecting patient and staff from danger and harm such as discrimination. There are three main policies which include Confidentiality, Health and Safety and Whistleblowing. The first policy is Confidentiality which ensures that staff at a surgery will not disclose any of patients’ personal information without permission from the patient.

The dilemma for the organizations that have particularly serious issues are because the organization that deals with chemicals, drugs, or anything hazardous companies that are affiliated with OSHA will have to be in compliance, or they will face numerous of problems. They can be closed down; they will be fine with an anonymous amount of money depending on the type of violation. It is also, determine how many time the company has been cited for that particular violation.

This assignment will focus on one of the extremely important topics of the many hazards in the healthcare work place that may pose as a threat to my health and safety in the Care Industry.