Legislation relating to health and safety in care settings
The health and safety
related legislation are: COSHH (Control of Substances Hazardous to Health),
Management at work regulations 1999, Ridder 1995, Manual Handling operations
regulations 1992, First aid regulations 1981, Food Safety Act 1990, Fire
protection Regulations 1997, Personal Protective Equipment and The Health and
Safety at Work Act 1974.
To keep the safety and security
in the workplace, the employers develop the health and safety policies and
procedures. The health and safety work act (1974) direct the employers to set a
framework and policies for all the workers to maintain the safety-oriented
discipline and update the policies according to the time and requirement
(Sanderson, Kennedy, Ritchie, and Goodwin, 2002).
The primary health and safety responsibilities are listed
below
Self. The health and
safety responsibility f self-suggest that take care of your health and safety
on your own. Report any injury, accident, and illness if you suffered from
during the job or at the workplace. Do not misuse any equipment and never use
any instrument without proper training. Cooperate with the management staff and
co-worker in a challenging situation to avoid the possible harm.
The employer of
manager.
In a workplace, the employer or manager responsibility is to provide the safe
workplace initially. Provide in-depth information about the possible hazard at
the workplace. Train the employees before the implementation of practical work
with equipment (Sanderson, Kennedy, Ritchie, and Goodwin, 2002).
Others in the work
setting.
The responsibilities of others are to follow the given instructions and advice
related to health and safety. Pursue the equipment use oriented instruction,
and take responsibility for their action at the workplace.
The following task should not be
carried out without the special training such as peg feeding, injections,
emergency first aid, COSHH, medication, colostomy and fighting fire. All the
health and social practices have some limitations and associated risk.
Therefore the code of practice is imperative to follow to avoid the potential
adverse consequences.
Sudden accidents and illness that may occur in own work setting
The different types of the accident may occur in work
setting such as, fall, trips, burn, choking and slips. The sudden illness may
also happen in work setting such as cardiac arrest, food poisoning, stork,
heart attack, allergies, asthma, seizures, bugs, flue, influenza, and fainting
(Sanderson, Kennedy, Ritchie, and Goodwin, 2002).
Prevention Procedures
In the case of sudden illness
and accident, first, report to senior staff members or doctor by raising the
alarm or finding them instantly. Secondly, remain to relax and explain the
matter to senior, implement the assessment tools in the limit, provide
assistant training limits. File the accident or illness report; inform the
health and safety department following the code of practice.
The self-rule in supporting
other to reduce the spread of infection is to follow all the policies and code
of practice implemented by COSHH and infection control. I motivate other people
to attend the courses regarding the health and safety of the people. I attend
that all the training courses. In case of missing or incomplete information, I
do not guide or treat my client and discourage other who deliver incomplete or
ambiguous information or provide services. I abide by all the health and safety
protocols such as hand washing, using safety precaution. I also recommend the
health people for regular examination to avoid infection risk (Sanderson,
Kennedy, Ritchie, and Goodwin, 2002).
Causes of infection
•
Bacteria, through these small
cells the infection spread such as urinary tract infection, throat infection,
and tuberculosis.
•
Fungi cause the skin infection
such as athlete foot and ringworm.
•
The virus causes numerous
diseases from common cold to AIDS.
•
Parasites are transmitted to the
human body through mosquitoes bite and animal feces and cased bacteria.
Main points of legislation that relate to moving and handling
Avoiding Hazardous Manual Handling
•
The Manual Handling Operation Regulation1992
(MHOR)
Reporting Immediately any Difficulties
•
The Health and Safety at Work
1974 (HASAW)
•
Conducting a full Risk
Assessment Role,
Using Equipment Correctly,
•
Lifting operation and lifting
equipment (LOLER) 1998
The Employers Duty
•
Assess and reduce the risk of
injury, and provide an appropriate assistant.
Principles for safe moving and handling
The basic principle of moving and handling suggests that the
equipment related to moving and handling should be check thoroughly if they
work well or not following the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. The
supporting staff should be well trained and qualified in using that instrument
and guide the patient appropriately. The supporting staff must have the patience
to teach the client how to use the equipment slowly and accurately using Manual
Handling Operations Regulations. The preferences and needs of the parents must
be considered in that process (Sanderson, Kennedy, Ritchie, and Goodwin, 2002).
Types of hazardous substances that may be found in the work setting
The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulation
(COSHH) suggest Several types of hazardous substances may found in work setting
such as used needles, clinical waste, medication, used dressing, dust, vapors,
disinfectants, fumes, gases, biological agents, solvents, and body fluids.
Practices that prevent fires from
Starting. To prevent the fire
from spreading identification of hazardous risk, it is imperative to check how
the fire starts and spread. The most significant factor is to be aware of a
fire triangle, i.e., oxygen, fuel, and ignition. The fire starts with the lit
cigarette, naked flame, faulty electrical equipment and hot surface. All these
areas must be the check on daily or hourly basis to prevent the risk of fire
starting.
Spreading. To prevent the risk
of spreading fire is to store the flammable equipment such as paper, wood,
waste material, flammable liquid, and furnishing. Regular checking of the smoke
detector and keeping the fire door also shut helpful in preventing the risk of
spreading fire.
Explain emergency procedures to be followed in the event of a fire in the work setting
In the first level, the fire alarm should be used to alert
the people and working staff about the fire starting and spreading. The
knowledge about the firefighting procedure should be accurate and implement
effectively such as appropriate use of fire blanket and different fire
extinguishers. The evacuation process should be implemented for the safety and
security of children, individual and types of equipment. The people should be
guided about the evacuation routes such as not using lifts, clear the routes
with wood, paper, and other stuff from the stair roots.
The importance of ensuring that
others are aware of own where about promote the high-security system in work
setting and reduce the risk of loss. All people should be aware of
understanding the sign and meaning of fire and smoke alarm to take safety precautions.
In this way, maximum life may be safe if all the people may take the initiative
on their own. The knowledge of CCTV, in and out routes, mobile codes and signs
eliminate the potential harm of fire threat (AGREE Collaboration, 2003).
Common signs and indicators of stress in self and others
The common signs of stress lead to disruptive and
destructive behaviors that may be harmful to the individual and the other
persons as well. At a personal level the individual may suffer from,
depression, anxiety aggression, and psychotic symptoms. For others, he may
indulge in threatening activities like conduct and loss of property issues.
The factors that can trigger stress
The factors that can trigger stress can be divided into
behavioural, emotional and cognitive factors and the symptoms are isolation, discrimination,
anger, abuse, threat, harassment, and traumatic experience, chest pain, memory
problem, poor judgement, inability to concentrate, rapid heartbeat, lack of
self-control, irritability, short temper, anger, dizziness, low self-esteem
alcohol consumption, smoking and negative self-concept (Department of Health,
2005).
Compare strategies for managing stress in self and others
The strategies for managing stress are coping strategies
such as deep breathing; avoid the stressful situation, taking a glass of water,
massage, yoga, aromatherapy, physical activity and running. Social strategies
are a catharsis, meeting with friends and helping the needy people. Cognitive
strategies include the painting, prioritizing goals, distraction techniques,
and rational thinking. Faith strategies include the use of religion for
reliving conflicts and stress.
Access to support
The counselor, psychologist, healthcare staff and doctors
are available in the community setting to help the people for copying their
stress. They help the individual to identify the core beliefs of stressors and
find the solution on their own using the solution focus therapy.
