Workplace safety: Hazards

As a nursing assistant, you need to know how to prevent hazards in your healthcare facility that could pose risk of injury to you, your co-workers, and clients.

We will be talking about some of these hazards, which include falls, entrapment, chemical injuries, and electrical shock. Alright, let’s start with falls.

Falls are the most common type of accident in healthcare facilities; they can lead to fractures, like hip fractures, and head injuries, which could be life-threatening.

There are a few factors that increase the client’s risk of falls. These risk factors can be related to the client and their condition or to the healthcare settings.

Okay, so one risk factor that increases a client’s risk of falls is the age of the client, where the older the client is, the higher their risk of falling. Another factor is the client’s mental status, where they could be experiencing confusion or delirium.

Other risk factors include medical conditions that cause muscle weakness or musculoskeletal problems; dizziness; and orthostatic hypotension, which is when the client’s blood pressure falls when they move from a sitting position to a standing position.

Also, the client’s risk for falls increases if they need to rush to the bathroom often due to issues like urinary incontinence.

Finally, there are certain medications that increase the risk of falls, such as sedatives and anesthetic drugs, which affect the client’s mental status, and antihypertensive medications that lower the blood pressure.

Now, healthcare setting or facility risk factors that increase the risk of falls include a bed left in a high position; lack of bedrail use; and tubes, bags, and catheters attached to the client.

Other facility risk factors include inadequate lighting; lack of grab bars, like in hallways or stairways; and wet or slippery floors.

Also, the use of canes, wheelchairs, and crutches that do not properly fit the client, like a cane that's too long or too short or a wheelchair of inappropriate size, makes them more prone to fall.

There are few things you can do to help prevent falls and protect your clients. First, identify the client's risk of falls at admission.

This can be determined from the nurse's assessment of the client, which includes checking their mental status, current medications, and for signs of unsteadiness or imbalance.

If the client's fall risk is high, their room should be close to the nursing station, so they can be closely observed. Also, set the bed height to its lowest level and lock the wheels as this decreases the extent of injury in case the client falls.

Check the client’s walkers, canes, and wheelchairs to make sure they fit the client and that they’re in good condition to use.

Additionally, ensure that the client is using them correctly. Clean any fluid spills on floors immediately to avoid slipping. Finally, encourage the client to use grab bars in hallways and stairways when they walk.

A bed or chair alarm can also alert you when high-risk clients get out of bed, so you can check to make sure they have not fallen.

Alright, the next hazard is entrapment, which occurs when the client’s body becomes stuck or trapped in between the different parts of their bed. Injuries from entrapment could be mild, like skin abrasions or tears, or serious, like suffocation and death.

Now, there are five main parts of the client’s bed, which include bed rails, head- and foot-boards, mattress, and bed attachments. Clients can become stuck in spaces between any of these parts, which are known as entrapment zones.

There are seven entrapment zones: Zone 1 is within the rail itself, zone 2 is between the top of the mattress and the bottom of the bed rails, zone 3 is between the mattress and bed rails, zone 4 is between the top of the mattress and the bottom of the end of the bedrail, zone 5 is between split bed rails, zone 6 is between the end of the bed rail and the side edges of the head- or foot-board, and zone 7 lies between the mattress and the head- or the foot-board.

Okay, there are clients with certain risk factors for entrapment whom you should check frequently to make sure they’re not entrapped.

These include elderly clients; those who are confused or disoriented, physically weak, disabled, or have a small body size that may get entrapped easily; and those who are restrained. Also, make sure to frequently check clients who are restless or have poor muscle control.

Alright, entrapment can be prevented by reducing the size of the gaps between different parts of the bed. This can be done by using an appropriately sized mattress or by covering or filling the gaps with special covers or objects.

Next up are chemical injuries. Healthcare facilities use different chemicals that could be hazardous and cause serious injuries that adversely affect client’s health.

Hazardous chemicals can affect any part of the body, including the nervous system, lungs, kidneys, skin, and eyes.

Also, some chemicals can affect fertility in both men and women, while others can affect pregnant women and can result in miscarrigae and birth defects.

Some chemicals, like benzene, are carcinogenic, meaning they cause cancer. Additionally, some chemicals are flammable and can start a fire or cause an explosion.

Exposure to hazardous chemicals can be caused by equipment failure, like the release of mercury from thermometers and blood pressure measurement devices that contain mercury when they break, or by the rupture of containers and spillage of their contained chemicals, like disinfectant; cleaners; and many medications, like chemotherapy drugs.