health and safety nursing assignment help in queensland

health and safety nursing assignment help in queensland

Health and Safety in Nursing

1. Introduction to Health and Safety in Nursing

Health and safety in nursing: An introduction. The health and safety of all individuals who work within hospitals, and other healthcare environments, including protection from violence, must begin with the development of a culture of openness where staff can express their concerns about the work environment without any fear of retaliation. In many developed countries, this led to the development of national regulation designed to direct organizations in each country to provide workplaces that are well managed in terms of health and safety. Thus, nurses practicing in different countries will need to be aware of the legislation that applies to the particular country in which they work because explanation for the relevant terminology, systems of compliance, and the legal framework referred to in the literature and in most courses and seminars are normally based on each country’s legal system. For example, nurses working in the United States would be expected to comply with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), a federal agency administered by the Department of Labor. On the other hand, the same level of regulation in the United Kingdom is achieved through the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, and other legislation such as Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH) and Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992. Such legislation provides a lot of explanation of both the meaning of work ‘health’ and work ‘safety’, covering the responsibilities of employers and employees, what the main requirement of the legal and common sense definition of risk are, and the principles of prevention and definitions of terms such as ‘hazard’, ‘risk’, and ‘risk assessment’. In addition, there are specific regulations, guidelines, and feature codes of practice which have direct relevance to nursing practice. For example, the Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulation 1981 states that employers have a legal requirement to provide suitable and accessible arrangements for immediate first-aid assistance for employees in the case of workplace injury. This would have implications for employers in nursing practice such as medication, hospital, industry, where there is a requirement for patients or service users as well as employees to be provided with first-aid assistance. When legislation mentions ‘suitable and sufficient’ health and safety training, it does not define what is meant by those words. However, national guidelines issued by professional organizations and government departments are helpful in adding more details to the legislative explanation. For example, the Nursing and Midwifery Council recommends a balanced mix of theoretical and practical elements tailored to the specific needs of nursing practice and designed to provide nurses with the knowledge and the motor skills necessary to identify hazards. The provision of health and safety information at the commencement of employment, and the education and training or information and guidance given to a nurse in the course of that employment, will help nurses to have a clear understanding of the potential risks and the appropriate precautions. These will be explained further in the next sections.

2. Importance of Health and Safety in Nursing Practice

In the workplace, the clinical waste must be segregated, and it has to be done so at the place where it was produced. It is a requirement that waste be contained as close to the point of production as possible, thus reducing the risk of infection.

All the health and safety signs must be adhered to in any given hospital or healthcare facility. These signs are usually displayed for immediate recognition and safety, and so if they are ignored or not followed, there is a serious risk of injury because there are high chances of both patients and staff being exposed to danger. It should be the main priority for employees to display and use health and safety signs whenever they are applicable.

Health and safety procedures must be followed, and all staff, including the nurses, are required to attend all the necessary training in health and safety. This is essential as it will put the employees in a better position to know how to take care of their own health and safety as well as that of their fellow employees and any other persons who may be affected by their acts or omissions.

Every nurse has the responsibility to ensure that they uphold the highest principles of health and safety in the workplace. It is not just a matter of choice but rather a duty that every person in the healthcare system is required to fulfill. It is therefore the responsibility of the healthcare employer and his workers to put in place measures that will ensure a serious approach to the welfare of the patient and safety of the carers.

The challenges are enormous and can range from exposure to life-threatening infections and diseases in the hospital environment to the possible health and safety risks associated with moving and handling patients. Furthermore, issues such as day-to-day cleaning and general housekeeping materials and activities also need specific attention to health and safety.

In recent years, nurses have begun to recognize the fact that no work can be done without health and safety measures being considered and that failure to take health and safety into account can pose dreadful and devastating effects. The nature of work in the healthcare industry, given its complexity and the demands/pressures from the public and the state, is associated with a number of health and safety issues.

Health and safety is basically about creating a safe place for work. It is of great essence to know that a safe, healthy, and happy workforce is the key to the delivery of high-quality patient care. Everything possible should be done to ensure the workplace remains safe not only for the employees but also for the patients.

The well-being and safety of nurses is considered to be of great significance, and the possible injuries and diseases that may result from any breach of health and safety will have a big impact in the workplace. In this section, we shall be looking at the significance of health and safety in nursing practice and its impact on both the patient and the healthcare professional.

3. Key Regulations and Guidelines for Health and Safety in Nursing

In the United Kingdom, health and safety law is derived from various pieces of legislation. The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 is the primary piece of legislation covering occupational health and safety in the United Kingdom. “Occupational health” is understood as the effect of work on a worker’s health and also the interaction between a worker’s health and safety in the workplace, so it will include the health and safety of patients. Employers are responsible for ensuring the health, safety and welfare at work of all their employees. This includes the need to provide sufficient staff with the appropriate qualifications, knowledge, and skills, as well as taking into consideration mental health and the limits of workers’ performance. They also have a responsibility to those entering the workplace and the general public, so risk assessments, consulting employees, and training for staff is obligatory. Although it would seem that nurses working in the health care sector would need to adhere to guidelines such as the “Main Categories of Medical Devices”, it is actually quite important that nurses be familiar with a more recently introduced system – that of “Incident Reporting for Medical Devices”. This system was introduced as a result of the European Commission’s Council Directive 90/385/EEC concerning active implantable medical devices. This directive implemented a system for monitoring and supervising these, and other similar high risk, long term medical devices, with the aim of improving patient safety and the quality of care. Any device which needs to be used regularly for over thirty days and is life supporting and/or vital in its function or used for diagnostic monitoring, such as a blood glucose meter, is to be considered an “active implantable medical device”. It is important for nurses to be aware of this system, because the directive requires that nurses report to the manufacturer, and where applicable the competent authority, any “undesirable effects and any malfunction or deterioration in the characteristics and/or performance of a device”. Adhering to health and safety practice can often seem like a time-consuming process, but it is essential for the promotion of a safe and secure working environment for both patients and staff. By maintaining the welfare of patients and by ensuring that a high standard of care is promoted, health and safety practice is a valuable aid not only to success in treatment, but also the career satisfaction and overall wellbeing of the healthcare workers involved. As the leading specialist health and social care training provider, HSS Training is helping many different organisations keep their care staff and service users protected. With courses including the “Health and Safety in Care” Award from Level 2 to Level 4, we are committed to providing professionals with the knowledge and skills which are vital to the care sector.

4. Implementing Health and Safety Measures in Nursing Practice

The final stage briefly refers to the identification of areas where improvement may be necessary, whether that be in response to an assessment of risk, a preventative or protective measure failing to achieve its aim, or any other form of workplace concern. In this context, the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 confirms that the duty to protect workers from harm – in this case, the fourth stage of the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle – incorporates effective planning, control, monitoring, and review of any preventative or protective measures. This cycle, therefore, becomes an iterative process which places health and safety as a central consideration in day-to-day management and decision-making and promotes common standards and methods for managing and improving working.

The third stage, checking, is key to the success of the overall strategy of health and safety implementation. This involves systematic evaluations of the strategy as a whole and how it is being applied, to allow for continuous improvement and to provide the employer or designated implementing officer with assurance that the employees are safe or to highlight where action needs to be taken. These evaluations should be clearly documented, along with any remedial action, and the documented investigations should be made available for scrutiny by worker or employer health and safety representatives.

The second stage of the cycle refers to the implementation of the planned strategy. This will involve initiating the main objectives of the health and safety policy, which are to prevent accidents and cases of work-related ill health and to improve overall occupational health and safety performance. To this end, workers should be engaged as much as possible with the planned strategy, both to maximize the potential for a safe working environment and to ensure that each worker is aware of what is considered to be the safe system of work.

The first stage, planning, involves the development of the organisation’s health and safety policy. This policy should be a clear statement, by the employer or the person in control of the working environment, of the organisation and arrangements in place. This strategy should outline the ways in which risks will be evaluated and details of the preventive and protective measures to be adopted. These measures include the provision of information, training, and supervision, maintaining a safe workplace and environment, selection of work equipment, and safe systems of work. It should also cover monitoring, maintenance of control measures, and health surveillance.

There are several potential frameworks for achieving implementation, including the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle. This is a cyclical, four-stage process that involves planning the implementation, carrying out the planned strategy, checking to ensure that the strategy had the desired outcome, and acting to improve the strategy if it did not.

5. Promoting a Culture of Health and Safety in Nursing

Why is it so critical to imbue the principles of health and safety in the nursing culture? It is because an institution that operates in a safe and healthy manner is more efficient, more sustainable, and ultimately more successful than one that does not. When it comes to health and safety in the workplace, actions always speak louder than words. Promoting a positive workplace culture that values safety over production targets, for example, has been identified by the Health and Safety Executive as a cross-cutting main priority in enabling regulatory change. This means that when a workplace has a positive health and safety culture, both the employees and the employer benefit. This section explores what is meant by the term workplace culture. It will look at how a positive culture of health and safety can be created and how it can be strengthened within a workplace – using both top-down and bottom-up approaches. For an organizational culture to be considered positive.