Health_and_Safety

For the purpose of this essay I will review how risk assessment informs care planning for individuals and impacts on the organisational decision making about policies and procedures in the work place. In the work place your employer should aim to comply with their moral duty and legal responsibility to ensure the safety and welfare of the staff, service users and any other persons. A risk assessment is a fundamental part of successful health and safety management. This is essential to the planning and implementation of health and safety. A risk assessment is identifying the likely hood of a possible hazard to someone; it is where a careful assessment of what in your workplace could cause harm to someone. When completing a risk assessment you must be sure you have taken enough precautions to prevent any possible risks to anyone. Employers should review the risk assessment and implement any recommendations which have been suggested. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (N.I) 2000 require all employers to assess all risks from their work. Employers of 5 or more people are required by law to have a written report. As well as protecting employees employers also must comply with the law and follow legislation when identifying risks. There is a five step approach to a risk assessment The first step is to identify any possible hazards second you must decide who might be harmed and how The third step is to evaluate the risks and decide on precautions Fourth is to record your findings and implement them The last step is to review your assessment and update if necessary The aim is to eliminate any possible injury caused when working. Once the risk assessment has been created and implemented a multidisciplinary team work in partnership to create a person centred care plan for each resident based on their own specific needs. This team is made up of different service providers such as Doctors, OT'S, Social Workers and Housing Associations. When working in a caring setting you have a duty of care to protect and safeguard service users. Safeguarding means protecting people’s health, well being and human rights. Enabling them to live free from harm neglect and abuse. All practitioners have a responsibility to protect children under the age of 18 and vulnerable adults from harm. Care workers are legally obliged to always act in the best interest of others, and work in a way that will not cause harm to others. Your duty of care means you always work to provide a high standard of care at all times. Legally, employers must abide by relevant health & safety and employment law, as well as the common law duty of care. They also have a moral and ethical duty not to cause, or fail to prevent, physical or psychological injury, and must fulfil their responsibilities with regard to personal injury and negligence claims. (ACAS, 2012) To ensure the safeguarding of service users there are many policies and procedures in place. Health and safety executive and LA have responsibility for the overview and enforcement of health and safety in the workplace, legal powers derive from the health and safety at Work Act 1974(HASAWA) this means all service providers are required to adhere to the laws as made by HSAWA. Fallon,M.,2013 Health and Safety.[class notes].Ballymena Nrc College Each care home or organisation should have policies and procedures in place to cover all areas of care including safeguarding. Inspections have found that procedures are not followed. Commissioners must make regular checks to ensure these necessary procedures are being followed and a high standard of care is given. In the care home where I work I must adhere to many policies and procedures not only to promote the health and well being of the residents but to also protect myself. Before commencing work I had to complete training to ensure I was ready to provide a high standard of care and was able to do my job safely. We were informed of all the relevant legislation, policies and guidelines such as; Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 Health care workers are more likely to have a back injury or back pain as they are lifting & moving patients daily. Injuries can be prevented by training the staff on manual handling. RIDDOR 1995 Infectious diseases can be a serious problem in a care home, last week we though a resident had scabies this could be a serious problem as it is highly contagious, staff should be trained and informed on the correct the reporting of injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences. To protect workers and residents of hazards. COSSH 2002 Care assistants are in daily contact with substances which can be hazardous to their health. All employees are informed of the precautions to take to prevent themselves and others being exposed to substances which may be hazardous to health. Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 All employers to provide systems of work that are safe and without risk to health. Employers should assess any potential hazards in the workplace and implement any recommendations to keep staff and residents free from potential injury. Fire Precautions act 1971 At the risk of a fire all staff are to be trained in fire and the homes emergency evacuation procedures, Each home has their own procedures for example all residents doors have a coloured sticker on their door indicating their level of mobility in case of a fire. Working in different nursing homes Its paramount that I follow all health and safety legislation to maintain a high level of health and safety which could minimise the risk of accidents an infections. By doing so you are working to a high standard and creating a safe environment for staff and service users. Hygienic working practices must be adhered to in accordance with legislation. I had training before starting work in infection control. Basic hygiene like washing your hands regularly prevents the spread of infection, it is something I do religiously When at work. After washing my hands I use PPE when in contact with each new client, I wear latex gloves and an apron this is to prevent the spread of infection or any contagious diseases. Failure not to comply with this could cause an outbreak and to vulnerable clients could cause serious harm. Risk Assessment conclusion After completing my risk assessment I was able to see that medication is of high risk in the home where I work. I feel medication is a serious issue. There are different issues with medication Residents not being supervised when given medication Risk & Action Plan I usually work a twilight shift which means I clean up the lounge after getting the residents to bed, when I take off the seat cushions, I often find medication under the cushions. Tablets have even been found in a residents handbag. This shows me that the residents are not being supervised when given medication. There is a risk of residents health deteriorating if not being supervised to ensure they have taken medication as this has been prescribed by the doctor for health issues. Also there is a risk to the other residents or visitors as these tables thrown away or hid could be found and consumed. This could cause no side effects or ill health to the person who has consumed the medication or side effects may be severe enough to be life threatening. A simple yet effective way to minimise the risk is to stay with the resident when medication has been given and supervise them to ensure all medication has been safely consumed this would reduce the possible ill health deteriorating and accidental poisoning to others. Maladministration of medication Risk & Action Plan Maladministration is another issue in the care home where I work. As I work in the EMI unit most of the residents do have challenging behaviours but I believe sedatives are given out to often just to keep the residents quiet. To minimise the risk to the resident and to promote their health and well being I think the residents behaviours should be investigated and we should try to understand why they are behaving in such a way. This could help the resident deal with their anxiety instead of just giving them medication to keep them calm to ease the workload of the staff. Good-quality medication training is crucial to the safe use of medicines in care homes. There are a variety of training sources available to care home staff, but quality will vary. Training sources include: Community pharmacists who dispense to care homes. They will often provide training for staff on the use of medications as part of their supply service; Distance learning packages; Primary care trusts, local authorities and private companies; Further and higher education institutions; Asthma UK’s website has multimedia instructions on using common inhaler types, including spacers (Asthma UK, 2011). The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has produced useful guidance on the safe use of medicines in this setting (RPSGB, 2007). Lack of staff to administer medication Risk & Action Plan Lack of staff can be another issue when administering medication in our home. There should be a nurse on each of the 4 units at all times however this is not always the case. In some occasions there is only one nurse in the whole building a lack of adequate staff means a decline in the quality of care received. This can mean medication is not given at the right time and as the nurse is not familiar with residents then mistakes can happen to. Research shows unacceptable levels of medication errors in nursing homes. Residents in care homes take an average of eight different medicines every day and on any one day seven out of ten residents experience mistakes with medication, ranging from doses being missed or given incorrectly, to the wrong drugs being given out. In some cases these errors have the potential to cause very serious harm. (CHUMS report, 2009) Residents in nursing and residential care homes represent one of the most vulnerable populations in the UK and often have multiple medical conditions. As identified by the CHUMS study, they are at particular risk from medication errors and, as the personal experiences shared by relatives and carers in ‘Making Care Safer’ demonstrate, there are many opportunities for healthcare professionals, managers and staff to introduce change and improvement in the care they provide.(CHUMS report,2009) The Manager of the care home should ensure adequate staffing levels at all times and if the created a happy working environment and tried to boost staff morale then they could decrease the turnover off staff. Therefore permanent staff would get to know the residents well and build relationships. Conclusion & Dilemma My risk assessment concluded that medication issues at present are of medium risk, this means these should be dealt with as soon as possible and all recommendations implemented should be put in practice within a short time frame. However these issues may seem easy to correct but in reality are not so easy and straight forward. More generally, an inquiry found that staffing levels were "rarely set at a level that allows for more than minimum essential standards of care", meaning that staff did not have time to interact meaningfully with residents and personal care was hurried ( http://well-organised) Our home uses a lot of temporary staff I myself was an agency worker before being offered cerement work. temporary staff remain a key component to nursing homes. They are mainly used because of their flexibility to be called into work at short notice and are reliable. Temporary staff are trained to a high level and have the benefit of working in different environments. Agency workers are spot checked and are reviewed regularly to ensure they are working to a high standard. As temporary workers they do not usual get involved in any possible issues with other staff members they come in and do a job well and leave. Some employees would argue that by using temporary staff the quality of care provided is reduced as the agency worker has not built relationships with residents and is unaware of his her needs. Employees may resent working with agency workers as they believe they are paid a lot more money than them, often the employee is under even more pressure working with temporary staff as they may have to show them the ropes and explain the procedures in the home. I think management should decide if it is cost effective to have agency workers in the home. As staffing levels are low they must decide if it is in the best interest of the residents to use agency workers, by using agency staff they are guaranteed staff even at short notice. However if they believe the quality of care is compromised using agency staff then maybe the money used for agency workers could be used on better management of permanent staff.