Critical Appraisal Of Risk Management Practices In Occupational Health And Safety

Discussion

Write an essay on critically appraising a chosen risk management practice within Occupational Health and Safety area.

Occupational health and safety is concerning the area of health, safety and security of the workers associated with the workplace. The health and care centres have been facing the most hazardous consequences while attending the patients and working in the hospitals. The serious hazards, such as working with needle-sticks, lifting and moving patients, the unpredictable environment, and other associated works are the major concerns for the health care professionals. The risk management is considered as the identification of the management threats and opportunities that may affect the reputation of NHS standards (Nhsemployers.org 2016). Occupational health and safety is referred for considering the area of concerned with health and welfare, engagement of the workforce, and safety approaches in the workplace. The occupational health and safety aims to promote the safer approaches to maintain the healthier work environment. Maintenance of the proper OSH programmes protects the workforces that might be affected by several situational incidents. However, Rothmore and Boucaut (2015) mentioned that risk management is somewhat taken into considerations as the core components of healthcare programmes.

The study is based on the occupational health and safety management associated with the health care practices of Bedford Hospital, which provides the quality health care and hospital services to the people of UK. The study will mainly highlight the potential hazards that are usually identified in the health care context. The study will also include the risk assessments and control approaches that are needed to be applied to maintain the occupational safety. The identification of the potential risks and the stakeholders will be associated with this study. The formulation of the relevant structure of risk management will be discussed by presenting the legal and technical knowledge.

Discussion

The health care centres need to pay attention towards the health, safety and the welfare of the associated employees. The enhancements of efficiency, motivations, productiveness, and attendance can bring a lot of benefits to the health care organisations. Bedford hospital is registered under NHS Trust and provides the higher quality health care services to the patients in UK and staffs (Bedfordhospital.nhs.uk 2016). The business practices undertaken by the hospital authority determines the maintenance of the occupational health and safety of the associated health care professionals. In this current scenario, almost 2000 members are associated with the hospital (Bedfordhospital.nhs.uk 2016). The investigation report has been showing that this hospital has been facing the higher number of the employee turnover rate in this current scenario. However, the commendable contribution of the hospital authority to promote the occupational health and safety to the workers has created the significance on the other hand.

Potential Hazards in Healthcare Practices

One of the major hazards associated with the occupational health and safety aspects of Bedford is the Physiological hazards. The psychological hazards are mainly depending on the technological changes, discriminations, paperwork, violence, increased bureaucracy and facility size, demands of the patients, understaffing, and deaths of the patients (Reese 2015). While working in the health care nursing home, the nurses, midwives, and other health care associates face several psychological hazards. It is to be noted that the psychological hazards usually create the negative impact on the working environment. However, as per the report presented by Care Quality Commission (CQC), there were some allegations about this hospital. The allegation has been indicating that Bedford has somewhat failed to provide the proper occupational health and safety to both the patients and the workers (Bbc.com 2016). The hospital needs to keep the focus on some of the ‘urgent improvements’ for complying with the quality and safety standards of NHS. The unskilled workers are involved to deal with the emergency cases, which is the major concern for the health safety of the patients. Apart from this, the workers even have to deal with the medical instruments or equipment, which are sometimes too risky. Handling such equipment may create the health hazards for the workers. The hospital authority needs to pay attention towards the training process to make these workers more skilled and cautious enough while using such equipments. 

In defining the proper risk assessment plan, it is required to structure the assessment in a stepwise process. It is to be indicated that the risk control or risk assessment plan is based on five steps. The first step is the identification of the hazards, which may affect the healthcare practices in a significant manner (Mitre.org 2016). In this case, the major health hazards are found due to the infectious elements during the treatment of the patients. It is important to measure the effects of the hazards in the organisational practices. Apart from this, another major hazard is the treatment of unskilled practitioners in case of emergency issues. If the practitioners are not so much skilled in using the advanced medical equipment, it might affect the health of both the patients and the workers.

The second step is to determine the people who are actually affected by such scenario of potential hazards. Lundgren and McMakin (2013) mentioned that many people make mistakes and it is essential to anticipate the degree of human errors. In this particular context, while providing the chemotherapy of other radioactive therapies, the rays extracted from the equipment may affect the skin or health of the practitioners. The attendants even sometimes have to deal with the waste management. The hazardous element derived from the wastages can harm the human health, skin, and respiratory system.

Risk Assessment and Control Approaches

The third step is the evaluation of the risks, which determines the consequences of the hazards. While identifying the potential hazards related to the health and care context, it is important to analyse the precautions that would be relevant enough to prevent the risks (Sheeran, Harris and Epton 2014). The risks identified in this health care context can be mitigated if the nurses, practitioners, and the attendants can undertake the proper precautions. The use of the mask, gloves, and chemical ointments can be helpful for preventing the germs from infecting the health. More specifically, the involvement of the proper training and development session would also be required in such context.

The next step is to ensure the engagement of the people for the training session purpose (Mitre.org 2016). While providing the training session to the staffs; scheduling the agenda of the training programme is necessary. The training session needs to be associated with different segments including the development process of communication skills. The healthcare practitioners, expert associates, management, and the senior employees will be participating in this training and development session. The final step is to review the entire assessment planning and updating them where it is necessary (Hockenberry and Wilson 2014). Dealing with the vulnerable clients who present some of the complex needs is also considered as one of the major challenges in the occupational health and safety. If the workers lack the proper monitoring or supervision, they will be unable to gain the important experience about dealing with such clients. Hence, the issue has been highlighted more prominently in the context of Bedford Hospital.

The major external stakeholders of Bedford Hospital are the patients, their families, government, and social service centres (Bedford.gov.uk 2016). The recognition of the potential risks is necessary and these are needed to be listed. The mitigation of such risks would be analysed by the administration to ensure the proper initiatives related to the occupational health and safety context.

In keeping concentration on the potentiality of the risks, the training session needs to include the proper communication process, medication training, and safeguarding of the vulnerable adults (Gov.uk 2016). The health sickness makes the people vulnerable at times and it is difficult to deal with them in such circumstances. Due to the psychological dissatisfaction, the patients sometimes show their unwillingness to take the medicines. Using the gloves, masks, and infection detecting ointment would be helpful for the practitioners, midwives, and the attendants (Breslin and Wood 2015). The reliability assurance can enhance the positive reputation of the health care centre. Hence, the communicational process is necessarily needed to be maintained by the both the staffs and the practitioners.

Training and Development Needs in Occupational Health and Safety

While implementing the risk assessment factors, it is essential to measure the success by analysing the outcomes. The management authority of Bedford Hospital firstly needs to concentrate on providing the proper training session to the workers for reducing the potential risks. In such regards, the record sheet of one month performance is needed to be presented to the administrative department. If there is any health hazards found in one month time, it would be analysed for taking the further relevant step. The administrative department needs to pay the attention towards the records. It would be helpful for understanding the health purposes and relevant steps that are needed to be undertaken (Hickman 2014). The performance analysis report will be presenting the measurement of the success and depending on such results; the management would be able to understand the area of the rectification. The conduction of the survey process among the health care staffs would also be effective. The staffs would provide their experience while dealing with the different equipments, wastes of the patients, radioactive treatments, and other diagnostic tools.

The study highlights the occupational safety and security context by explaining the issues with the health hazards of the workplace staffs. Some of the hazardous situations have been identified in Bedford Hospital and these are presented further:

• Unskilled workers are dealing with the emergency situations
• Lack of proper knowledge of the workers to use the advanced medical equipment.
• Lack of experiences in dealing with the vulnerable clients.
• Insufficient training session for handling the equipment and dealing with the other associated people
• Managing the relationship while dealing with the families of the patients
• Lack of potentiality in meeting the NHS standards.

The study provides the idea about the insignificant behaviour of the staffs in the physical hazards of the associated staffs. Moreover, the service users opt for the secure, safe, and reliable health care centre for the treatment purposes. The administration needs to provide the proper training session to the staffs for using the technological tools that can prevent the accidental situations (Breslin and Wood 2015). More specifically, the maintenance of the safer approaches is necessary for ensuring the occupational health and safety. The staffs need to get the enough knowledge about the precautions and the preventing method of such situational hazards. The training and development session would thus be effective enough in establishing the secure surrounding in the health care context.

The Health and Safety Act 1974 is the Act of the Parliament, which is defining the fundamental structure for regulations, encouragement, and enforcement of workplace safety. The act mainly signifies the responsibilities of the workplace, workforce, and other people included in the organisation. Each of the employees in the workplace needs to consider the regulatory factors associated in the organisational procedures. The staffs associated in the health care sectors need to follow the regulatory aspects in considering their behavioural traits. The effective and polite behaviour of the staffs can mentally satisfy the service users and they can rely on the health care centre. Similarly, the negative behaviour reflects the negative outcomes, which are affecting the organisational reputation.

Stakeholders in Bedford Hospital

The risk assessment process is generally associated with a number of technological and legal approaches. The management can use the ICT tools during the training session related to the communication process. It is important to concentration several legal aspects related to the risk assessment factors. As per the New Fundamental Standard and staff covering Care Act 2014, the training resources will be provided to all level of staffs (Wandptraining.co.uk 2016). The ISO standard 31000:2009 is referring the mitigation of the risks related to the organisational activities and areas of rectifications. The principles of the ISO standards signify the maintenance of the effective behaviour of the staffs that can be satisfactory for the service users. The standards are even helpful for improvising the areas of concerns and the staff management procedures. On the other hand, as per the Patient Rights Act 2011, the patient can demand for their needs and the staffs would provide them enough information regarding their queries. Moreover, the staffs need to behave in a polite manner while dealing with the patients. The patient can even provide both their positive and negative feedbacks about the services they have received. The authority can even use the ICT tool for the communication purposes in the healthcare centre.

Conclusion

The study concludes the entire risk assessment procedure maintained in a health and social care setting. The identified health hazards associated with Bedford Hospital is the unskilled workers who have been dealing with the emergency cases. Apart from this the workers are even facing the potential risks while handling the medical instruments. These instruments are much advanced and sometimes difficult to use until the proper training sessions are not provided. Therefore, it is required to provide the proper training sessions to the workers. After identifying the risks, the management of the organisation has undertaken the training and development process for the staffs. In this session, the staffs would be provided the proper education and the training procedure to communicate with the clients or the service users and to use the technological tool. The measurement of the performance report will be analysed every month and the report is needed to be provided to the administrative department.

References

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