PUBH6002: Work Health Safety Assessment - Global Health Issues

This report presents a work health safety assessment, addressing hazards associated with tasks like making beds, patient mobility, and challenging patient behaviors within a healthcare setting. It identifies potential harms such as strains, falls, and psychological effects. The assessment evaluates existing risk controls, current risk ratings, and proposes additional controls to mitigate risks. The report utilizes a risk matrix to determine risk levels and suggests measures like staff training, equipment usage, and improved communication strategies to minimize harm and ensure a safer working environment. It also addresses the ethical elements relevant to environmental health protections and policies, from global to local scales. The analysis considers how global health issues and the social, economic, and political determinants of health influence disease, including identification of vulnerable groups. The report aims to provide an understanding of sustainable development and critically analyzes the relationships between environmental risk factors and social, economic and political determinants of illness and injury. The report also applies skills in conducting an environmental health assessment and designing an intervention to mitigate environmental health risks.

Task or scenario Hazard/s Associated harm, e.g. what
could go wrong? Existing Risk Controls Current
risk rating
Use the
Risk Matrix
Any additional controls are
required?1
Residual
risk rating
Use the Risk
Matrix
Making and adjusting
beds
Hazardous
manual tasks
Strains and sprains of the back,
shoulder, wrist and knee.
Minimal lifting approach.
Raising beds using bed locks.
Revising practices by quality
and compliance team.
Very likely Maintain bed heights that are within
the heights of staff Unlikely
Mobility tasks.
Moving and
transporting patients.
Moving boxes and
residents’ records
Hazardous
manual risks
Ligament and tendon damages.
Sprain and strain of the back and
shoulders.
Use of trolleys to move boxes.
Communicating safety
initiatives through safety
posters and safety alerts.
Extremely
high
Hiring more staff to assist in moving
residents who are overweight or are
classified as 30% over BMI.
Highly
unlikely
Obstructions such as
furniture.
Trips and falls. Minor to major injuries such as
strains and knee or ligament tear.
Reduce carriage of heavy loads.
Maintaining awareness of top
practices in security.
Medium Improving lighting.
Remove storage from main walk
paths. .
Low
Carrying heavy loads
that obstruct workers
view.
Strips and falls. Minor to major injuries such as
strains and broken knees.
Mandatory discouraging of
carrying heavy loads.
Use of trolleys whenever
possible.
Using key indicators such as
injury frequency rates to
dictate change.
Medium Store items within reach.
Enhance training on how to use
safety tools such as ladders and
trolleys.
Medium
Irritated and moody
patients
Challenging and
aggressive
Psychological or mental health
effects including depression,
EAP that offers counselling.
Training on communication
Highly likely Allow workers personal time off
when they are uncomfortable. Unlikely
1 Always consider whether or not it is possible to eliminated the hazard or hazardous task altogether. If this is not possible, refer to the hierarchy of risk
controls.

behaviours anxiety and other mental
illnesses.
strategies.
Verbal abuses and
threats casted towards
workers.
Challenging and
aggressive
behaviours
Psychological or mental health
effects. Including depression and
anxiety.
EAP that offers counselling.
Training on communication
strategies.
Training on how to identify
and diffuse cases of incivility
before they occur.
Very likely Allow time off when uncomfortable
or stressed in the workplace. Medium