Home-Based Care Hazards, Health And Safety Representative Functions, Manual Handling Equipment, And Personal Safety While Providing Direct Care Essay.

Definition of Hazard and Common Hazards in Home-Based Care

1. When providing home care, community care, aged care and disability services you need to be aware of hazards that may be present in a work situation.  Define hazard and discuss what hazards may occur in home-based care.

Hazard can be define as the danger that can cause any harm to the people. In home-based care there may be chemical hazards, biological hazards, physical hazards and fire hazards (Murray, & et al., 2019).

In home-based care, there can be various types of hazards but generally biological hazards are the most prevelant type of hazard as there are many factors that can cause illness or infection like the microorganisms and other pathogens.

2. Describe 2 (two) functions of a health and safety representative: 

a. To provide the information both in written and oral form to the inspector who is investigating an accident or any hazardious incident (Smith, & et al., 2018).

b. To give statements to the supervisor on safety in the workplace and health care. A health and safety representative is responsible for providing information to the higher authority about the safety measures at the work place.

3. Give an example of a risk you are aware of that is associated with driving and/or travelling with clients.  What procedures would you follow to minimise risk? Provide a rationale for the answer.

Physical injury due to accident. An accident that can result in the fracture of bones, head injury and organs injury.

Speed of the vehicle should remain average.

Driver and other persons should wear a seat belt.

Driver should drive the vehicle carefully.

If the car is maintained at the proper speed it will be able for driver to control the vehicle. Wearing seat belt will provide safety and protection to the people sitting in the vehicle (Smith, & et al., 2018).

4. Why is it extremely important to follow organisation policies and procedures when working in a new environment? Provide a rationale for the answer.    

It is important to follow organizational policies and procedures when working in a new environment so as to know the vision and mission of the organization. One can know more about an organization when the vision and mission is known To them (Dahm, & et al., 2022). By following the policies and procedures one can avoid any mishappenings in the organization also it makes the new person comfortable to work in the new place.

Functions of Health and Safety Representative

5. Provide an example of a lifting task that could be a manual handling hazard associated with aged care that you need to be able to identify:

In aged care, lifting a patient who is not supporting his body, in and out of bed manually can increased the risk of falling. It should be taken care of while lifting a patient who is not in a position to control his body to use some techniques like slide sheet to lift and move the patient (Browne?Yung, & et al., 2022). 

6. Give an example of a pushing/pulling task that could be a manual handling hazard associated with aged care that you need to be able to identify:

Pushing and pulling the bed of the patients in aged care manually can increases the risk of injury both to the aged person and the worker. This type of incidents increases the risk of injuries in the organizations(Badu, & et al., 2020).
By pushing and pulling manually can cause further complexity in the health issues of the person and therefore manual handling is avoided in the age care as the people are aged and their control over their body and emotions have become weak.

7. What postures would you adopt when carrying out the following tasks: Provide a rationale for the answer)

•    Restraining a person
•    Transferring a person from a chair to the wheelchair
•    Carrying a food tray

While restraining a person much strength is needed and safety of the person should be in the mind (Dahm, & et al., 2022). The posture should be straight, strengthful and confident while restraining a person.

When transferring a person from a chair to wheel chair , the patient should be lifted safely ans slowly. The posture should be straight and strengthfful while transferring the person. The person who is holding the patient should be confident.

While carrying a food tray the person should walk slowly and balance of the food tray should be maintained. The posture should be straight and comfortable walking should be there. There should be no hurry while carrying the food tray.

8. If you were moving a person in bed how would the manual handling hazards risks be increased if the person was unable to support their whole body? Provide a rationale for the answer.

The person may fall or any injury may happen. The person who is handling the patient may not be able to bear the weight and a slip can occur that can be dangerous for both the patient and carer (Browne?Yung, & et al., 2022).
This type of manual handling hazards should be avoided in the age care organizations because skipping, slipping and fallinf of the patient may risk the life of the patients and can give them a injury for the rest of their life.

Manual Handling Hazards and Equipment in Aged Care

9. Provide an example for when you would use the following types of manual handling equipment:

Hoist Slide Sheet  Patslide

Hoist – to lift the patient when the patient is not in aposition to hold his body

Slide sheet – to turn the patient when the is shifted from the operation room to the general room.

Pat slide – to transfer the patient from the stretcher after an operation or after he met with an accident so to shift the patient it is used (Berry, & et al., 2020).

10. Provide an example where there may be sources of risk to your personal safety when providing direct care services with PATIENTS?

Risk of getting infection from the patients is higher when coming in contact with them directly like fluid from their vomit or cough. By coming directly in contact of patients or their things which may be contaminated increases the risk of getting infected (Beattie, & et al., 2019). While handling the patients, if he is not supporting his body, the carer may lose his control also and they both can fall and injury can take place to both. While giving care to the patients, if the care taker has not taken proper care of his safety then he may get infection from the patients.

11. Give two (2) examples of where you would find information about the threats of risk and people related factors:

The information about the threat of risk can be found from the workers of the workplace. Thefts of personal property (Browne?Yung, & et al., 2022) Thefts of identity

12. Give an example of where there may be a source of infection when working with people in aged care environments:

When working in the aged care, infection can be caused from the infected patient by directly coming in contact with the patient and not taking care of safety. For example, when the patient is transferred from one place to other a direct contact with the patient can increase the chances of infection (Beattie, & et al., 2019).

13. Give three (3) examples of standard precautions that you can put in place to prevent the spread of infection as part of your work routine:

Hand hygeine – Washing hands regularly with soap and water after getting in contact with the patient

Use of PPE – Use of PPE when visiting the patient

Postures While Carrying Out Tasks in Direct Care

Hygeine related to Respiratory like coughing ettiquetes – Following guidelines related to the respiratory like cover your mouth with hankerchief or elbow while coughing or sneezing and put a mask (Berry, & et al., 2020).

14. Discuss the 3 transmission-based precautions and provide an example of each.

In contact precautions there should be a separate room for the patient and the care taker should wear PPE kit as a safety measure. Contact – Norovirus, head lice 

Airborne – Tuberculosis, patient should remain in airborne infection isolation room and he should put mask (Smith, & et al., 2018).

Droplets – Influenza, patients should be asked to wear the mask always so as to avoid infection to others(Smith, & et al., 2018).

15. Discuss some of the sources of infection in aged care environment for workers? Provide a rationale for the answer.

Workers can get infected from the patients by coming in contact with them. By coming in contact with the fluid of the infected person (Berry, & et al., 2020).

Workers can have a chance of getting infected by touching contaminated things.

By the things and materials used by the infected person.

By their clothes.

16. Who are the designated personnel in a workplace who you would report hazards to?  

Supervisor or manager in a workplace  should be reported about any danger or risk that can be happen at the work place (Badu, & et al., 2020). 

17. Compare 3 formats of how work instructions could be given to you in any workplace?

Work instructions can be given through paper document, through  file or through a set of instructions.

These instructions can be in the form of set of rules and regulations followed by the work place or code of conduct at

the work place(Murray, & et al., 2019).

18. List workplace procedures for dealing with incidents, fire and/or hazardous events?  

a. Reporting any hazardous incident
b. Responding any hazardous incidence 
c. Investigating the cause of their occurence (Beattie, & et al., 2019)
d. Action to minimise their reoccurence

19. Outline two behaviours of concern and strategies to minimise the risk as per organisational procedures. Provide a rationale for the answer.

a.    To hurt others
b.    To refuse doing things

Strategies- When the people trying to hurt others then it should be needed to remain calm, try to wait the person to become relax.  Don’t react  at the same moment.

When a person is refusing the things to do then don’t argue with the person, let them relax and try to find out the reason why they are doing so (Badu, & et al., 2020).

This will give some time to relax the people and without getting the same reaction from others they will easily calm down .

20. Identify each picture in the table and describe the type of use for each. (Reference).

References

Badu, E., O’Brien, A. P., Mitchell, R., Rubin, M., James, C., McNeil, K., ... & Giles, M. (2020). Workplace stress and resilience in the Australian nursing workforce: A comprehensive integrative review. International journal of mental health nursing, 29(1), 5-34. https://doi.org/10.1111/inm.12662

Beattie, J., Griffiths, D., Innes, K., & Morphet, J. (2019). Workplace violence perpetrated by clients of health care: A need for safety and trauma?informed care. Journal of clinical nursing, 28(1-2), 116-124. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.14683

Berry, L. L., Danaher, T. S., Aksoy, L., & Keiningham, T. L. (2020). Service safety in the pandemic age. Journal of Service Research, 23(4), 391-395. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094670520944608

Browne?Yung, K., O’Neil, D., Walker, R., Corlis, M., Smyth, A., Putsey, P., ... & Cations, M. (2022). Perspectives of professionals on the safety and accessibility of aged care for Care Leavers and Forgotten Australians. Australasian journal on ageing, 41(1), 42-49. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajag.12948

Dahm, M. R., Slade, D., Brady, B., Goncharov, L., & Chien, L. (2022). Tracing interpersonal discursive features in Australian nursing bedside handovers: Approachability features, patient engagement and insights for ESP training and working with internationally trained nurses. English for Specific Purposes, 66, 17-32.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esp.2021.10.002

Hill Jr, R. H. (2019). Recognizing and understanding hazards—The key first step to safety. Journal of Chemical Health and Safety, 26(3), 5-10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jchas.2018.11.005

Murray, M., Sundin, D., & Cope, V. (2019). New graduate nurses’ understanding and attitudes about patient safety upon transition to practice. Journal of clinical nursing, 28(13-14), 2543-2552. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.14839

Smith, T. D., Hughes, K., DeJoy, D. M., & Dyal, M. A. (2018). Assessment of relationships between work stress, work-family conflict, burnout and firefighter safety behavior outcomes. Safety science, 103, 287-292.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2017.12.005