Workplace Health and Safety: Tips and Strategies for Nurses

Running head: Workplace Health and Safety 1
Workplace Health and Safety
(Author’s name)
(Institutional Affiliation)

Workplace Health and Safety
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Question 1.1
As a nurse working in a hospital environment, the steps that one should take to ensure worker
health and safety include;
 Understanding the available environmental hazards
 Taking precautions when handling patients to avoid bloodborne pathogens
 Proper use of equipment and protective
 Practicing hand hygiene at all times
 Proper disposal of wastes and sharps (Park & Kim, 2013)
Question 1.2
1. Create an action plan to promote workplace health and safety. In order to make sure there
is safety in a hospital setting an action plan should be developed consisting all
intervention that needs to be addressed in a given period of time
2. Inspection of the workplace. This includes regular checking and maintain equipment and
personal protective, storage and fire assembly areas and updating instructions and
guidelines in order to maintain the safety of the general public and workers at all time.
3. Training of employees such as nurses and doctors about the workplace safety and
regulations. This should be done regularly so as to equip all workers with the knowledge
and skills that can enable them to understand the need for workplace safety practices
(Mullen, 2015).
Question 1.3
Bloodborne pathogens- this can be controlled through the use of personal protective and proper
handling of patients and waste products

Workplace Health and Safety
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Injuries from sharps- injuries from sharps can be controlled by proper handling of sharp
equipment and use of safety sharp boxes for disposal
Fire –fire in a hospital setup can be controlled by an indication of precaution on materials and
gases that can ignite fire easily, use of fire assembly points and emergency fire extinguishers.
The risk for development of musculoskeletal conditions- This can be controlled through
practicing of proper patient transportation techniques and use of modern hospital equipment
(Park & Kim, 2013)
Question 1.4
1. Use of safety signs and symbols- use of safety signs and symbols is one of the most
effective methods of sharing information about safety in the workplace since they are
easily understood.
2. Use of guidelines charts can also be effective as they tend to give direct orders on what
exactly should be done
3. Direct instructions
4. Demonstrations
5. Acting as an example to others (Mullen, 2015)
Question 1.5
The more experienced worker may have witnessed various impacts of health hazards in a
hospital thus they have a greater insight than less experienced workers.
In order to implement safe workplace policies, first one should understand the impacts of the
health hazards and the cost of prevention as compared to the cost of treatment. Others
contributions include using safety equipment as instructed by the manufacturer, following