Workplace Safety Report: Risks and Mitigation Strategies

This report provides a detailed analysis of workplace safety within Victoria Health and Community Service. It begins with an introduction emphasizing the importance of a safe working environment for productivity and the need for businesses to implement safety procedures. The report then focuses on the health and community sector, highlighting the various hazards faced by workers, including slips, falls, infectious diseases, and work-related stress. It identifies specific risks such as hazardous substances, manual handling issues, occupational violence, and exposure to infectious diseases. The report outlines risk mitigation strategies employed by the Victoria State Government, including the use of safety data sheets, mechanical lifting devices, and awareness programs. Recommendations are made for providing nurses with better knowledge on managing patients with mental health illnesses and checking their mental health regularly. The report concludes by reiterating the significance of workplace safety and its impact on worker health and productivity. References are provided to support the findings.

Running head: WORKPLACE SAFEETY 1
Workplace Safety at Victoria Health and Community Service

WORKPLACE SAFEETY 2
Introduction
As opined by Börsch-Supan & Weiss (2016), a safe working environment results in a
productivity. Regardless of the size of the business, it is essential for every business to
incorporate safety procedures in the workplace for all their staff. Safety measures ensure
protection of employees as well as safeguarding the equipment and business property. As
suggested by Di Antonio (2017), the prime motto of every business operating in any industry has
to deal with certain workplace hazards and threats which requires to be avoided or minimized by
use of workplace safety policies. In order to maintain safety at workplace it requires businesses
to pay close attention to the associated hazards and accordingly identify risk mitigation
strategies. It becomes the responsibility of both organizations as well as employees to drive
safety culture at workplace. Even when leaders in the organization are focusing on evolving the
work culture, an active engagement of employees will allow measures to reach its full potential.
Workplace Safety in Health and Community Service
As per Smithies & Webster (2018), the health and community sector comprises of public
and private hospitals, old age homes, children care facilities, nursing homes and home care
facilities. The health and community sector requires continuous attention of the workers towards
the patients. But in order to keep others healthy and safe, the workers should also take care of
their health. As identified by Prüss-Üstün & Neira (2016), Health and community sector can be
exposed to several threats and hazards which can impact the health of the workers. This
increased concern has given rise to several policies and checklists for hazard identification in
order to safeguard workers and other staff members. The wide range of hazards comprise of
slips, falls and trips, manual handling, infectious diseases, hazardous substances, medical waste,
biohazards and work related stress. All these requires to put attention at the right time. Aluko, et.
al. (2016) have opined that each healthcare facility has different workplace safety policies that
are either created by the management or with joint efforts by the management and staff.
Following the safety measures starts with identifying the workplace safety hazards and ways
they can be mitigated. Employees are provided with safety hand books so that they follow the
appropriate safety procedures. This will not only result in fewer accidents, but the costs of
worker compensation and lesser retaining time for replacing the injured worker will be less.

WORKPLACE SAFEETY 3
Health.vic is one such health and community service website which provides the Victorian
government's health information (Victoria State Government, 2019a).
The risks identified in Health and Community Service
The Victoria state government has identified certain workplace hazards that requires
immediate attention in order to safeguard the lives of both employees and patients (Victoria State
Government, 2019b). The most common hazardous substances are the use of chemicals in the
workplace such as disinfectants, acids, petroleum products, heavy metals, solvents, paints and
glues. The possible side effect from the exposure of these hazardous substances can be
poisoning, headache, chemical burns, nervous system disorders, skin related issues, nausea and
vomiting. Workers can suffer injuries from hazardous manual tasks such as high or sudden force,
sitting or standing in an awkward position, repetitive movement, and exposure to vibration. The
most common issues from manual handling hazards is musculoskeletal disorder which includes
the risk of injury from lifting, pulling, pushing, uneven floor surfaces, moving heavy objects,
prolonged sitting or standing positions unavailability of people to do the task. All these can lead
to physical and mental fatigue as well as injuries.
Another common issue for Victorian nurses of Victoria state government Healthcare is
back injury. Due to manual handling of equipment and patients, nurses become accountable of
taking care of everything and this can be challenging for them. Occupational violence and
aggression is a common phenomenon seen in many organizations. Since everyone has the right
to work in a safe environment, occupational violence and aggression must not be encouraged.
Elderly care request utmost attention and caring for people requires to manual lifting and moving
of people which can be dangerous for both employees and the patient. Issues like cleaning
bathrooms will require the workers to come across faeces, blood and vomit which may have a
chance of exposed to infection. Contracting of infectious diseases is probably one of the biggest
reasons for Healthcare policies. Contracting of infectious diseases can cause severe issues if they
are exposed to any such diseases. Work related stress can pressurize the employees to cope up
with the situations and suffer. Stress can often lead to anxiety, frustration, emotional exhaustion,
physical symptoms and behavioral changes among the workers which can create confusion and
difficulty while making decisions. Hospitals and healthcare facilities release several medical
wastes which has the potential to cause infection and therefore requires workers to carefully

WORKPLACE SAFEETY 4
handle them. The Healthcare facility is concerned about managing the people with mental
illness.
Risk Mitigation
The Victoria State Government healthcare facility although has certain hazards, the
facility has identified the risks associated and along with that risk mitigation strategies that can
safeguard the health of workers and patients. The use of hazardous substances in the healthcare
facility may give rise to physical issues like poisoning, nausea, vomiting and chemical burns. In
order to mitigate the risks, the facility has maintained a label and safety data sheet for hazardous
substances which has a strict policy of importing substances only which are labelled in
accordance
with Globally Harmonised System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) (Persson,
Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen, Lai, Persson & Fick, 2017). The labels ensures the degree of hazard by
using hazard pictograms, danger and warning signs, and precautionary statements. The risks can
also be mitigated by identifying lesser alternative substances. The risk of manual handling can be
eliminated or minimized mostly by using mechanical lifting devices such as hoists, trolleys,
wheelchairs to transfer patients from one place to another, rather than lifting children, heightened
table can be used to put the babies in care. The risk can be mitigated by reorganizing work tasks
which reduces manual handling, making changes in the workplace layout so that workers are
able to work safely, breaking down the work into smaller quantities, providing specific rest
breaks to avoid muscle strain and using team lifting for heavy goods.
The Healthcare provides the Victorian Nurses Back Injury Prevention Project to address
the back injuries suffered by nurses (Xia & Collie, 2018). To mitigate this issue, the back
program facilitates no manual handling of moving patients which have been replaced by 'no
lifting' principles. The program also educated nurses to be proactive in identifying the hazards
and reducing the risk of injury in workplace. Awareness and knowledge programs have been
inculcated at all levels of the Healthcare facility to reduce occupational violence and aggression
in the Victorian Health Services. The facility also has policy framework to mitigate violence in
health services. For elderly care, the facility provides wheelchairs and support to the aged
patients. Exposure to infectious diseases can be dangerous and the risk can be reduced by
isolating the source of infection through engineering models, encouraging workers to apply safe

WORKPLACE SAFEETY 5
and preventive measures of washing hands. The policy of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
has been framed to protect the workers from infectious diseases. Regular maintenance of
healthcare and air conditioning equipment will be required. The work related stress can be
reduced by encouraging workers to discuss about the issues they are facing and creating work
life balance for them. The facility can provide achievable targets and flexible work schedules for
the workers in order to not overburden them with work.
Recommendations
Victoria State Government's health facilities has several nurses working under them who
provide health related issues, they provide which services with utmost care. In order to take care
of the workers of the Healthcare facility, the risks have been identified and facility has already
existing policies and strategies to mitigate the risks. Apart from those strategies, it can be
recommended that nurses can be provided with better knowledge on managing the patients
suffering from mental health illness. Mental health patients can be of different kind such as drugs
and alcohol addicts, trauma informed patients, suicidal patients, etc. Therefore it is important to
make the nurses more resilient to manage such patients and take care of them. Also the mental
health of nurses must be checked on regular basis. This is because even they have work life
stress which must be released through shorter interval of work, flexibility in their work, no
manual lifting and other Healthcare facilities to the nurses. Since their wellbeing is highly
important, the Healthcare facility must facilitate them with extra pay for overtime and other
perquisites.
Conclusion
Health and safety is important for every human being regardless of them at any given
place. Workplace safety is also important for the workers to work in a safe and surrounded
environment. Therefore, organizations are trying their level best to identify the issues, hazards
and threats that may impact the productivity and health of a worker. Safety in the workplace
results in fewer accidents which helps in reducing elevated costs on worker compensation, and
avoiding any physical damage. The performance of workers will also improve when they are
knowledgeable enough to tackle any hazard and also confidence in management's active
participation in safeguarding them.

WORKPLACE SAFEETY 6
References
Aluko, O. O., Adebayo, A. E., Adebisi, T. F., Ewegbemi, M. K., Abidoye, A. T., & Popoola, B.
F. (2016). Knowledge, attitudes and perceptions of occupational hazards and safety
practices in Nigerian healthcare workers. BMC research notes, 9(1), 71.
Börsch-Supan, A., & Weiss, M. (2016). Productivity and age: Evidence from work teams at the
assembly line. The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, 7, 30-42.
Di Antonio, M., 2017. Risk Culture in Different Bank Businesses. In Risk Culture in
Banking (pp. 31-71). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Persson, L., Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen, S., Lai, A., Persson, Å., & Fick, S. (2017). The Globally
Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals—Explaining the Legal
Implementation Gap. Sustainability, 9(12), 2176.
Prüss-Üstün, A., & Neira, M. (2016). Preventing disease through healthy environments: a global
assessment of the burden of disease from environmental risks. 3rd ed. Geneva,
Switzerland: World Health Organization.
Smithies, J., & Webster, G. (2018). Community involvement in health: from passive recipients to
active participants. 4th ed. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
Victoria State Government. (2019a). Information for. Retrieved from
https://www2.health.vic.gov.au/
Victoria State Government. (2019b). Hazards in roof cavities. Retrieved from
https://www2.health.vic.gov.au/public-health/environmental-health/environmental-
health-in-the-home/hazards-in-roof-cavities
Xia, T., & Collie, A. (2018). Work-related injury and illness in the Victorian healthcare sector: a
retrospective analysis of workers’ compensation claim records. Australian health review.