Occupational Health and Safety
As an inpatient nurse, I face chemical, biological,
radiological, and ergonomic exposures on an almost daily basis. Some of the
more common hazards I encounter include, infectious diseases, chemotherapy,
radiation, and strenuous patient handling. Because it is impossible to
eliminate or even substitute these sources of harm from the work environment,
other methods must be utilized to maintain the health and safety of the hospital’s
employees.
- Engineering Controls: negative pressure rooms, hoods, closed system tubing, walls resistant to X-Ray waves, separate chemo disposal bins, sharps containers, adjustable beds, lift assistant devices, and safety needles
- Administrative Controls: mandatory annual online training modules that review health and safety topics, required vaccinations, implementation of policies and procedures, audits, exposure plans, and mandatory lifetime radiation exposure trackers
- Personal Protective Equipment: goggles, face shields, gloves, gowns, booties, chemo gloves, surgical masks, PAPR, and respirators (along with annual fit testing)
In reality, all of these interventions are taking place due to
the strict regulations that were established to protect workers in hazardous
occupations. Working at a unionized hospital is also advantageous because union
representatives fight for the implementation of safe practices to protect their
members. The only area I find hospitals lacking in is the Hazard Communication
Standard. As stated in the presentation, most companies provide a general out of
the box training module that is not tailored to the specific chemicals in each
individual unit.
Workers may be fearful to report violations of health and
safety regulations for a variety of reasons. Barriers include a fear of retribution,
fear of financial loss, fear of job insecurity (getting fired), fear of social isolation, and fear of
deportation based on immigration status. Laws, such as the Whistleblower Protection
Act, were enacted to help protect employees when reporting such violations.
Hi, Elena!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your posting! It was interesting to read since I am also preparing for nurse and it is good to hear how actual nurse has problems regarding to occupational health and safety. As you listed, there are many ways to protect nurse from hazard in the hospital. I totally agree with you it is very important to have the law that protects employees against the barriers that you mentioned like fear of job insecurity.
Hey Elena,
ReplyDeleteYou bring up an excellent point concerning the training of hospital workers, and others, when mentioning the standardized training videos. As you have stated, these videos often neglect to train staff on the specific hazards they may encounter, that other staff will not. Although it would appear important for all staff to know of all the general hazards in their work environment, it would make more sense to train each staff on the specific hazards they may encounter. Again, it would be interesting to see if any research has been conducted to see if specific hazard training videos increase staff health.