LO1: Understand Potential Hazards In Health, Social Care And Childcare Environments Flashcards
What is a hazard?
A hazard is the potential to cause or adverse health effect.
What are examples of potential hazadrs?
Electricity
Chemicals
Working up a ladder
Noise
Keyboard
Bully at work
Stress
What is a risk?
Likely hood of harm in a defined circumstance as well as how serious that hazard could be.
What is manual handling?
Using the correct procedure when physically moving any load by lifting, putting down, pushing or pulling.
What are the types of hazards?
Environmental
Biological
Chemical
Psychological
Physical
Musculoskeletal
Working conditions
Working practices
Lack of security systems
What is an example of an environmental hazard?
Work or damaged equipment, furniture and flooring can cause slip and trip hazards resulting in strains, bruising, fractures or being knocked unconsious.
What is an example of a biological hazard?
Medical or other waste products not disposed of following the correct procedures and poor levels of hygiene can result in the spread of infection and disease.
What is an example of chemical hazard?
Medicines - incorrect doses being administered, wrong medication, unauthorised access to medication can have serious health consequences.
Cleaning materials - stored or used incorrectly can cause serious physical harm.
What is an example of a psychological hazard?
Fatigue and stress - due to long working hours, coping with challenging behaviour, violence, abuse from service user, bullying in the workplace place.
What is an example of a physical hazard?
Excessive loud noise at work ie. continuous use of a loud hoover can cause ring in the ears, deafness or other ear complaints.
Radiation from electromagnetic rays like x-rays and gamma rays - x-rays, used in medical environments for scanning internal organs and diagnosing broken bones. Gamma rays are used in the in the treatment of cancers and sterilising medical equipment.
What is an example of a musculoskeletal hazard?
Manual handling - equipment, patients, residents can cause muscle injuries if not carried out correctly following procedures.
Display Screen Equipment (DSE) - incorrect posture or badly placed screen can cause muscular aches and pains and also repetitive strain injuries (RSI).
What is an example of a working conditions hazard?
Temperature - too hot or too cold can cause dehydration and make conditions such as asthma worse.
Hearing can be damaged with long-term exposure to noise levels that are too high.
Stress and fatigue can be caused by travelling long distances, being away from home and sitting in traffic from periods of time.
What is an example of a working practices hazard?
Excessive hours can result in accidents and mistakes as a result of lack of concentration and tiredness.
Lack of supervision for new staff or those on new tasks. Training essential to avoid accidents and errors. ie. using a hoist incorrectly could lead to injury.
What is an example of a hazardous activity in a care setting?
Assisting an individual out of a wheelchair.
Cleaning - cleaning chemicals materials, noisy hoovers.
Dressing wounds, changing nappies and contact with bodily fluids.
Exposure to infections.
Helping a person out of bed.
Helping a person out of the bath.
Lifting heavy equipment.
Picking someone up from the floor.
RIS from using display screen equipment.
Using a hoist or bed board to transfer individuals.
Violent or abusive service users.
What are the potential impact of an hazard on employees?
Individuals who work in a care setting, such as nurses in a hospital or teaching in a primary school. Staff in care settings may develop mental health illnesses such as depression or stress and physical effects such as high blood pressure if their workload is excessive. They may sustain back injuries if they do not receive the correct or adequate training got things such as manual handling.
What are the potential impact of an hazard on an employer?
A manager or owner of a care setting who employs staff. Examples include a Headteacher of a school or an owner of a residential home. Employers could face serious consequences, such as being taken to court, being fined or closed down. For example if an individual is seriously injured due to hoist not being worn out or poorly maintained. This could also result in a care setting developing a poor reputation to failing an inspection.
What are the potential impact of an hazard on individuals who require care or support?
Service users, the people who go to a service, such as; hospital patients, people attending a day care centre etc. Individuals who require care and support may not receive adequate levels of care if staff do not have enough time to do their job properly due to staff shortages or lack of training. Staff who do not maintain high standards of hygiene can cause infections to spread amongst individuals like MRSA. An individual requiring care or support might suffer financial loss if their belongings are stolen or damaged while using a service.
What are the potential impact of hazards?
Injury or harm
Illness
Poor standards of care
Financial loss
What are example of injury and harm?
Back injuries - musculoskeletal damage, slipped disc, injured muscle.
Chemical burns
Cuts and bruises
Deafness
Fractures - arm, leg, rib, ankle, collarbone
Injury from intruders - terrorists or burglars.
Radiation
What are examples of financial loss?
Loss of earnings due to time of work
Loss of job
Compensation being received/pursued
Theft of personal money or belongings
What is MRSA?
Serious bacterial infection that can spread quickly in settings like hospitals where people are more vulnerable due to open wounds and weakened immune systems.
What are examples of illness?
Eye strain
Food poisoning - diarrhoea and sickness
Headaches
High blood pressure
Infections
Mental health - anxiety, depression, disempowerment, burnout
MRSA
Being unable to work, leading to staff absence
What are examples of poor standards of care effects on the employees?
Feel tired or exhausted
Forget to give medication
Forget to provide fluids and food
Lack concentration
Lack enough time to do their job properly
What are examples of poor standards of care effects on the individual who need care or support?
Bed sores an pressure ulcers
Bruising due to poor handling
Dehydration
Health deteriorates/illness gets worse
Malnutrition
