Observation Of Safety Signs In Lady's Hospice And Care Services Essay.

Discuss about the Safety and Health at Work, The objective of the survey is to observe and list different types of signs, location, their prominence and the message they portray.

Safety signs

Answer to question 1

I have conducted a survey at my workplace maned Lady’s Hospice and Care Services to observe the working environment. The aim of the survey is to find if it is a safe, healthy, secured and fulfilling place to work. A visual survey was conducted to locate and record the safety signs in the workplace. The objective of the survey is to observe and list different types of signs, location, their prominence and the message they portray. The safety signs wil be reviewed and coded. The rationale for the survey was everyday challenges presented to the hospice care to the quality and the safety of dying experience. Prior to conducting the survey, a written consent was taken from the administrators of the hospice care. The purpose of the survey was clearly stated and was assured that it is solely for an academic purpose (Steege et al., 2014). For the survey, a notepad was used to list the necessary observations and camera was carried with permission.

Answer to question 2

Safety signs	Meaning	Relevance to work place
	Indicate to be cautious when using staircase. Yellow triangle  indicates danger	This sign saves people from falling and injury. People can use handrail to avoid fall and is particularly important for older adults who are fragile
	Indicates actions to be taken in event of fire	It is relevant as it guides people to avoid confusion and panic an act systematically to  protect from fire. This safety sign explains the correct use of the extinguisher along with the colour code i.e., · black for CO2    which is to be used on electrical equipments · Red represents water that is to be used on water and papers · Blue represents dry powder · Yellow represents foam spray These signs educate people about correct usage of extinguishers so as to prevent the hazard and injury
	This sign is indicative of accessing emergency door in a manner shown in image. Green with white symbol is the sign of safety step.	It is relevant because people might access this emergency  door in an event of fire or any other hazardous situation for safety.
	instruction about steps to be taken after fire is noticed. This sign helps sound the alarm so as to receive immediate rescue and the number is displayed to call fire brigade. It also instructs about steps to be taken after hearing the fire alarm. Red sign is symbol of prohibition. Blue is the sign of mandatory instruction	Following this quick steps will lead to rescue of a person from injury due to fire.
	only trained and authorised person can enter this door	The activities inside the door may be harmful and hazardous which an untrained person cannot handle. For instance storage of inflammable substance inside the door
	This safety sign prevent entry of any person into the room that is meant for lift machine except the authorised person along with the sign to open door. Black circle indicates denial of access to unauthorised person	Unauthorised person can mishandle the equipment or tamper that may lead to unforeseen circumstances and death.
	This sign prevents the use of lift in event of fire and instructs to use stairs instead	Using lift during fire may enhance the risk of death such as being struck in middle of the way and death. It may also lead to electric blast. Stairs eliminate such risk and injury.
	Indicates way to use the equipment during fire	Help fight fire and prevent damage to people.
	indicates not to tamper with the fire extinguishers represented with red with white symbols	Misuse of the fire extinguishing equipment may fail to be used during fire.
	Safety sign for hand rub and hand wash and techniques to do.	This sign is relevant as it helps to people to understand that they must hand rub for hand hygiene and hand wash when visibly spoiled. The correct process When correctly followed by the staff will help prevent infection among the health care staff and already vulnerable patients.
	It is the danger sign indicating potential risk associated with room meant for electrical work	Unauthorised entry may lead to misbehaviour due to lack of awareness and may cause fire or any other accidents.
	prohibits entry of unauthorised person into generator room indicated in red circular shape.	This room regulates electricity and other machines.  Accidents are bound to take place in engine rooms which every one cannot handle.
	This is the sign of blanket that is used to fight fire.	It can be used to fight fire that is caused by single object like in kitchen to cover the excess flames with the blanket
	It is the danger sign that represents the area without oxygen.	Entering this area may lead to death caused by oxygen cut off.
	prohibition of smoking  and danger associated with chemical cleansing room	Following this instruction prevents fire and chemical hazards.

Three of the potential hazards are-

Physical hazards- are caused by biological and chemical factors. It includes toxic, corrosive, reactive flammable gases, blood borne pathogens. It also includes mechanical hazards that may cause electrical hazards, noise and violence. Slip and fall hazard may be caused by the wet floors, bad lighting and improper use of the floor mats and the runners. It may increase the risk of patient falls and mortality (Steege et al., 2014).

To avoid the physical hazards, the heath care assistants must regularly monitor and maintain the floors, immediately report any spills or leakages, wear the right shoes, store cylinders upright, and store only approved flammables in closed containers. The health care workers must use proper protective equipment wherever necessary. Other precaution may include- maintenance of the electrical equipment as per the company standards and the manufacturer’s instructions; regular inspection of the cords, tools, grounds, and accessories. The health care workers must take precautions while entering the restricted radiation areas (Achour et al., 2014).

Psychological hazards- are caused by malfunctioning equipment, discrimination, tight work schedules, overwork, understaffing, demanding patients and patient deaths. These are stress-contributing factors that lead to burn out in workers. Burnout in workers if unaddressed increases the risk of delivering poor quality of work and increase in the length of the hospital stay of the patients.

The health care assistants can avoid these hazards by engaging in regular staff meetings to share innovative ideas and feelings. Stress management programs and readily available counselling are effective methods by which the caregivers can reduce the workplace stress. The care assistants must uptake reasonable shifts schedules and relaxation exercises. Scheduled rotation of the unit assignments may lead to decrease in hospital worker stress. Flexibility and participation of the assistants in the scheduling will increase the efficiency in the work function.   The caregivers must recognise the need of and action on legitimate complaints. The health care workers must seek further opportunities to improve skills (Ndejjo et al., 2015).

Meaning

Ergonomic hazards- are related to repetitive motions, standing for long period of time, lifting activities, and bad lighting and eyestrain. Overexertion caused by lifting is the major cause of injury and accidents. Overexertion increases the risk of fatal and non-fatal illnesses among the heath care workers and withdrawal from job.

Health care assistant can manage these hazards by examining the possible ergonomic risk factors in the heath care facility. The health care assistant  may want to provide assistive devices for lifting, handles on carts, lower the items to alleviate reaching, start with no-lift program, conveniently store the  lifting devices, encourage exercises, regularly maintain the lifting devices and other equipments (Chartier, 2014).

Every year around two hundred people are killed due to workplace accidents and more than million cases of injury are reported.  It is not good odds and prevention of the worker’s ill health and accident is the key priority. Therefore, health safety education for employees is important as it will ensure that the employees are not injured by the work they perform. Knowledge and awareness caused by the safety education assist in development of the positive health and safety culture. Such a culture will lead to “safe & healthy working” a second nature the employees. Safety education thus aids the employees to become more competent and avoid the distress caused by ill health and accidents. Safety education is important because insurance does not cover all the losses. It is important to prevent the loss of work days and the shortage of the workers (Momani & Mumani, 2017).

The health care employees need to be educated about-

• Skills to identify and manage potential risks
• Educate the employees on safe patient handling and use of mechanical lift assistance for moving of patients whenever possible- it will help prevent mobbing of the patient in unsafe manner.
• The employees must be taught to investigate near misses and report the same. The must learn to report the incidents of high pressure from the patients, violent incidents, and threats of physical violence
• The employees need to be educated about the highest safety standards and how they must work to maintain compliance of the standards- it will promote the work efficiency of the employees and equipment proficiency.  
• Employees to be educated about the nature of various chemicals and risk associated with the restricted areas such as maintenance workshops, warehouses, medications, areas of radiation, and kitchens.
• The  employees need to learn about the legal requirements of the health and safety

The main learning outcomes of this assignment are the improvement in the observational skills. The assignment helped to learn the various safety signs in a hospice care. It is evident that health care workers engage in complex task while dealing with patients of variety of illness. Therefore, they are vulnerable to potential hazards. It will consequently result in loss of workdays, shortage of workers and increasing rate of occupational accidents and deaths. It may also increase the rate of mortality and morbidity of the patients. Hence, healthy and safety working environment is important to prevent workplace hazards. Various factors contribute to the safe and healthy working environment in the health care. It includes-

Organisational factors- It refers to managerial leadership in handling workplace issues and accidents. Safety culture in the organisation is the factor that determines the safe work environment. It refers to the provision of safety work equipments such as assistive devices. If “safe & healthy working” is the second nature of the employees, then the workplace is less likely to report accidents. Further, effective communication among the supervisors, managers, leaders and the health care staff is an important factor. This factor regulates the report of incidents and its monitoring to address the issue. Effective communication ensures awareness among the staff about safe behaviour and standards in the facility. Team leaders should be able to guide the staff correctly and keep informing about the safety measures (Kirwan et al., 20.13)

Relevance to work place

Individual worker factors- are related to the personal resources and the cognitive skills. It includes the situational awareness of each employee in the health care system, which aid in decision making.  Stress and fatigue are other factors determining the safe work environment. Employees with job burnout are highly vulnerable to the potential risks and the hazards at workplace (Steege et al., 2014).

Answer to question 1-

Hazards in the workplace	Appropriate control measures
Noise and sound	· Provision of the personal protective equipment such as noise cancelation ear plugs · Improve maintenance procedure and introduce low noise purchasing policy · Conduct noise assessment- and use to carry out the employer’s responsibility to reduce risk · Organization must specify the exposure action values and the limit values- for instance,  a daily lower exposure value of 80dB and upper exposure action value at 85 dB. It must be regulated these values should not be exceeded   · Educate the employees about risks and risk reduction and way to obtain protection · Mark the workplace area with hearing protection zones with prominent notices (Bentley et al., 2014)
Stress	· Use of personal protective equipment to prevent health stress and mechanical stress · Employees must schedule their shifts in reasonable way- to overcome exhaustion · Engage in stress reducing activities such as exercises, yoga, meditation, fun activities, get together with friends   · Healthy eating an sleep cycle- eating well balanced diet and meeting the nutrient requirements of the body is helpful in preventing stress and weakness. Sufficient sleep keeps mind and body clam by preserving energy · Rewards and recognition  for hard work  is the best way to motivate the employees and decrease burnout · System of reporting abuses, violence, crime, accidents must be stringent that will give the employees assurance that their issues will be resolved on reporting. When an incident is reported immediate action must be taken to control risks. (Gorman et al., 2014)
Diet exercise and lifestyle	· Healthy eating an sleep cycle- eating well balanced diet and meeting the nutrient requirements of the body is helpful in preventing stress and weakness. Sufficient sleep keeps mind and body clam by preserving energy · Engagement in physical activity to maintain healthy weight and maintain muscle strength · Take out time for Social connectedness- efficient management of shift schedules and allocation of time for other activities will improve lifestyle by improving the physical and mental well being   (Lara et al., 2016)
Dangerous chemicals, fumes and dust	· Use of the control equipment such as partial enclosure and total enclosure · Stringent polices to ensure the employees follow the control measures · Provision of the personal protective equipment such as masks and gloves · Labelling and storing of harmful chemicals  in appropriate places- labelling the risk of the  chemicals · Monitoring and removal of harmful chemical that have expired date and those that are not labelled and damaged containers · Appropriate ventilation for the toxic materials · Restricted the access to chemicals to only trained and authorized personnel- to prevent the release of the toxic materials dust, mist and gas into workplace air (Stave, 2016)
Manual handling	Organisation should ensure that the employees adapt a hierarchy of control measures - · To avoid Hazardous manual handling operations of harmful substances ·  Organisation must set guidelines for weight that can be lifted and lowered by the staff · Organisation must provide assistive devices for patient mobilisation (Bernal et al., 2015)

In health care facility, the most common occupational health related illness is the stress and burnout among nurses and caregivers. Caregiving is the long term challenge making the caregivers vulnerable to wide range of problems such as depression, burn out and anxiety (Laschinger & Fida, 2014).

The main causes of stress among the health care workers is the musculoskeletal disorders due to manual handling of  patients, manual lifting of patients, long standing hour,  injury due to needle stick, long shift hours, huge pressure due to understaffing, sprains, strains, slipped discs, blood borne infectious diseases, frequent infections, and head injuries. Stress is also caused by lack of job satisfaction and motivation (Schaufeli & Salanova, 2014).

The common signs and symptoms of the caregiver stress are-anxiety, depression, negligence of responsibilities, worsening health problems, feeling fatigue, lack of sleep, cutting back on leisure activities, difficulty concentrating, overeating or drinking and increase in irritability (Laschinger & Fida, 2014).

The preventive measures include (Cicolini et al., 2014)-

• Embracing the caregiving choice and its positive outcomes- Meaningful motivation helps employees  to sustain through difficult times.  
• Celebrating small achievements- such as quick recovery of the patient. It will increase the self esteem and confidence
• Employees must learn to maintain balance between the personal and the professional life- compromising personal commitments for work leads to stress and burnout. However, fulfilling life where one meets spiritual, physical, psychological needs decreases the stress level of an employee
• Organisation must implement flexible shift times and work schedules to allow stress free work for nurses and the caregivers- Flexibility will allow the nurses to take out time for relaxation.
• Organisation can prevent stress among the employees by giving rewards and recognition (both monetary and non monetary incentives)- it will increase job satisfaction and reduce stress

References

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Bentley, J. L., Krishnakumar, A. S., & Yajnik, S. (2014). U.S. Patent No. 8,774,368. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Bernal, D., Campos-Serna, J., Tobias, A., Vargas-Prada, S., Benavides, F. G., & Serra, C. (2015). Work-related psychosocial risk factors and musculoskeletal disorders in hospital nurses and nursing aides: a systematic review and meta-analysis. International journal of nursing studies, 52(2), 635-648.

Chartier, Y. (Ed.). (2014). Safe management of wastes from health-care activities. World Health Organization.

Cicolini, G., Comparcini, D., & Simonetti, V. (2014). Workplace empowerment and nurses' job satisfaction: A systematic literature review. Journal of Nursing Management, 22(7), 855-871.

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Kirwan, M., Matthews, A., & Scott, P. A. (2013). The impact of the work environment of nurses on patient safety outcomes: a multi-level modelling approach. International journal of nursing studies, 50(2), 253-263.

Lara, J., O’Brien, N., Godfrey, A., Heaven, B., Evans, E. H., Lloyd, S., ... & Sniehotta, F. F. (2016). Pilot randomised controlled trial of a web-based intervention to promote healthy eating, physical activity and meaningful social connections compared with usual care control in people of retirement age recruited from workplaces. PLoS One, 11(7), e0159703.

Laschinger, H. K. S., & Fida, R. (2014). New nurses burnout and workplace wellbeing: The influence of authentic leadership and psychological capital. Burnout Research, 1(1), 19-28.

Momani, A., & Mumani, A. (2017). Improving Employees' Safety Awareness in Healthcare Organizations Using the DMAIC Quality Improvement Approach. Journal for Healthcare Quality, 39(1), 54-63.

Ndejjo, R., Musinguzi, G., Yu, X., Buregyeya, E., Musoke, D., Wang, J. S., ... & Ssempebwa, J. (2015). Occupational health hazards among healthcare workers in Kampala, Uganda. Journal of environmental and public health, 2015.

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