Workplace Health and Safety in Home Care

This assignment explores workplace health and safety issues specific to home-based care for nurses. It addresses relevant authorities, identifies common hazards like musculoskeletal injuries, infection control risks, and personal safety concerns. The assignment also delves into strategies for minimizing these risks, including proper manual handling techniques, infection prevention protocols, and staying updated on workplace safety requirements.

Running Head: NURSING
Nursing
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Answers to question 1
The relevant WHS authorities are-
 Workplace Health and Safety Queensland
 Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (Vic)
 Work Health and Safety (National Uniform Legislation) Act 2011 (NT) (Bailey
et al. 2015)
Answer to question 2
Three hazards or risks in the home based care (Davis et al. 2015) -
 Slips, trips, and falls- due to wet floor or any client movement may lead to
musculoskeletal injuries
 Electrical hazards- Risk of fire and accident when handling the electrical
equipments that is not protected with the residual current device. It may lead to
skin burn and even death
 Biological hazards- Coming in contact with the client’s body fluids through
broken skin or by handling the soiled lining may lead to spread of infections and
increases the risk of diseases
Answer to question 3
Slip and falls risk can be identified by walkaway audits to monitor the wet floor,
footwear, presence of open drawers, rails on staircases, stepladders, and any obstacles in the
pathway

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Electrical hazard can be identified by the pre-service assessment of the client’s home,
reassessment of the electrical equipments, RCDs tested by appropriate qualified person.
Biological hazards can be a identified by observing and recognising the source of
infections, defective personal protective equipments, and checking the records of the vaccination
of the clients (Vincent and Amalberti 2016).
Answer to question 4
Situation of Risk
Type Minimisation strategy
E I
Client/resident _____ ____ Initial mental assessment of client
Chemicals/Poisons _____ ____ Code of practice for hazardous
substance handling
Poorly lit areas _____ ____ Immediate fixing or replacement of life
Night shift _____ ____ Proper lock of doors, emergency
telephone system available
Persons under the influence _____ ____ Skills to deal with aggression
Faulty equipment _____ ____
Care of agreement should include
equipment maintenance

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Staff member not using
equipment properly (poorly
trained)
Training and information,
Adherence to the OSHA guidelines
Leaking toilet _____ ____
Immediate repair by professional and
must be included in care of agreement
Moving an immobile client _____ ____ Use of wheel chair and assistive devices
(Source: Phillips Bills and Gare 2016)
Answer to question 5
To ensure basic home fire safety I will ensure that there is a smoke alarm, regular testing
of the electrical equipments, protection of the equipments with residual care devices or RCDs
and taking fire safety training programs (Purser 2015).
Answer to question 6
I will keep myself updated with the Workplace Health and Safety requirements by
reading the work safe eNewsletters and regularly attend the run free work safe events. I would

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also attend the Work Safe Week events every October in Melbourne and regional centres
(Ruseckaite and Colli 2013)
Answer o question 7
Common source of infection Manage infection
Direct contact with blood, body fluids or soft
tissue infection or urinary catheters
use of personal protective equipment such as
gloves, hand hygiene practice
Ingestion of germs via contaminated hands,
needles, and food surfaces, or water sources
practice hand hygiene policy, sterilisation of
medical equipments
Inhalation of infectious aerosol droplets from
sneezing, cough etc
Follow national code of practice for HIV and
hepatitis (Ruseckaite and Collie 2013)
Answer to question 8
Manual tasks- movement of clients, lifting heavy objects cause musculoskeletal hazards
Infection control- dealing with contaminated and soil clothes, contact with contaminated
surfaces cause hazards
Personal safety- violence, sexual assault at workplace cause hazard (Davis and Kotowski
2015)
Answer to question 10
Hazardous manual task code of practice will be used

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To minimise the risk it is better to take assistance of third person or use hoist, and
wheelchairs (Phillips Bills and Gare 2016).

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References
Bailey, T.J., Woolley, J.E. and Raftery, S.J., 2015. Does road safety have any lessons for
workplace health and safety?. Journal of the Australasian College of Road Safety, 26(2), p.26.
Davis, K.G. and Kotowski, S.E., 2015. Prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders for nurses in
hospitals, long-term care facilities, and home health care: a comprehensive review. Human
factors, 57(5), pp.754-792.
Phillips, K., Bills, J. and Gare, J., 2016. Developing modified equipment and work practices to
reduce the risk of work-related musculoskeletal disorders from conservation treatment. AICCM
Bulletin, 37(1), pp.42-48.
Purser, D.A., 2015. Fire safety and evacuation implications from behaviours and hazard
development in two fatal care home incidents. Fire and Materials, 39(4), pp.430-452.
Ruseckaite, R. and Collie, A., 2013. The incidence and impact of recurrent workplace injury and
disease: a cohort study of WorkSafe Victoria, Australia compensation claims. BMJ open, 3(3),
p.e002396.
Vincent, C. and Amalberti, R., 2016. Safety Strategies for Care in the Home. In Safer
Healthcare (pp. 93-111). Springer International Publishing.