Unit 3 Health, Safety and Security in Health and Social Care

Unit 3
Health, Safety and
Security in Health and
Social Care

TABLE OF CONTENTS
P1 Potential hazards and harms arising from them in a health and social care setting...............1
P2 Influence of legislations, procedures and policies..................................................................2
P3 Conducting a risk assessment.................................................................................................3
P4 Priorities and responses while dealing with two incidents.....................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

P1 Potential hazards and harms arising from them in a health and social care setting
Groveland Park care home is a luxurious care home that provides quality care to the
residents (Groveland Park, 2017). In a health and social care (HSC) setting, following can be the
hazards and associated harms:
Hazards due to equipment
There are various equipment used in a HSC setting such as trolleys, medical appliances beds,
patient handling aids etc. If the equipment is not in the safe condition, it may pose harm to those
who use it. Also, wrong use of the equipment by untrained staff or by patients in the absence of
staff also acts as a hazard (Cunningham and et.al., 2012). Following are the harms posed by this
hazard at Groveland Park Care home:
 Equipment hazards may lead to injury due to falls, entrapment between the bed rails etc.
 It may also lead to harms such as entanglement, crushing and cutting.
Exposure to infection
Infection can act as a hazard for the staff, visitors as well as the patients of HSC setting.
Biochemical agents such as parasites and viruses may be present in the HSC setting as even after
proper housekeeping, their complete elimination is not possible (Chartier, 2014). Infection can
act as a hazard at Groveland Park Care home if it is not controlled appropriately. The following
harms may be caused due to this hazard:
 It leads to exposure to infectious diseases and longer hospital stays.
 It harm the health of visitors, patients as well as the staff.
 Blood borne infections such as HIV may prove to be life threatening.
Hazardous substances
Various substances used in the health and social care settings may act as hazard. These
may include cleaning products, medicines, chemical wastes, biological wastes etc. (Brown and
et.al., 2010) Exposure to these hazardous substances may cause harm to the patients, staff as well
as visitors at Groveland Park Care home.
Working conditions
These can act as hazard for the staff as well as the patients if appropriate health and
safety concerns are not taken into consideration. Hazardous working conditions may cause harm
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