Healthcare workers in either nursing homes or residential care facilities encounter various risks, such as;
Noise and sound: Noise and sound is an environmental stressor that poses both psychological and physiological impacts on nurses. The hospital alarms, ventilators, intensive care units, and monitors are the primary sources of noise in hospitals. They can lead to stress or hearing impairment among the nurses, resulting in nurses living a disabled life.
Workplace violence: nurses are usually susceptible to workplace violence. The disease prevention and control centers (CDC) argue that a quarter of the total nurse assaults in working environments occur in nursing homes and residential care facilities. The most often assaulted workers are the nurses, and the assaults usually come from elderly residents, especially those with dementia.
Stress: In a healthcare setting, various factors cause stress among nurses and other healthcare workers. Unconducive working conditions, poor interrelationships, workload, and inadequate information flow are examples of stressing aspects Stress usually impacts healthcare workers personality and psychological balance, resulting in a change of attitude towards patients.
Occupational related illness: Healthcare workers can suffer from various illnesses in a healthcare setting. The illnesses can be caused by overexertion because nurses move and have frequent contact with patients all through the day. The bodily reaction and overexertion results in injuries that can accrue from slips, trips, and falls
Manual handling: Manual handling of patients puts nurses at risk of developing musculoskeletal disorders that are the primary cause of injury. Healthcare workers, especially nurses, often provide different aids to the aging population or patients, like moving them from one place to another. Such activities make the nurses susceptible to sprain injuries that accrue from patient lifting, especially around the shoulders and lower back.
Diet, exercise, and lifestyle: The risk of nurses becoming obese and contract non-communicable illnesses like diabetes and coronary heart illness is high. They are also subjected to inadequate physical activities and poor eating behaviors or habits.
Appropriate control measures
Noise and sound: Hospitals can minimize noise by minimizing alarms’ intensity and frequency or establishing ambient-noise control machines. They should also install sound-absorbing tools or equipment.
Workplace violence: Healthcare sector employers should establish protection programs for their employees like the “workplace-violence prevention program.” Policies, social support, and self-awareness should also be encouraged to protect employees from workplace-based violence
Stress: Nurses and other healthcare workers should be provided with an off-work period to rest and give enough wages to satisfy their basic needs.
Dangerous chemicals: Hazardous chemical exposure in hospitals can be prevented by eliminating them by thermal methods. Hazardous chemicals or drugs can be substituted with less harmful ones. Technology can also be integrated to isolate hazardous chemicals.
Manual handling: healthcare environments should provide workers with technological devices such as ergonomic devices to facilitate patients’ movement to reduce manual handling.
Diet, exercise, and lifestyle: Healthcare environments should provide nurses and other healthcare workers with health promotion activities and programs such as wellness days to work on health risk factors like obesity.
Occupational-related illness: Health facilities should conduct pre-placement health appraisal to assess their staff’s medical fitness (mental and physical abilities) before resuming work to minimize overexertion (Health Service Executive, 2019).
Occupational-related illness
Occupational dermatitis
Occupational dermatitis refers to a skin disorder due to exposure or contact with particular substances in a working environment. It is also known as contact dermatitis, and it is commonly found in Ireland. It can result in long-term repercussions to workers’ health, and in extreme or severe situations, it can hamper their working capability. There are two forms of dermatitis
Causes
Irritant dermatitis: Irritants are the common cause of contact dermatitis because they damage the skin. Corrosives or highly irritant substances contribute to around 80% of contact dermatitis cases.
Allergic dermatitis: Allergic dermatitis occurs due to delayed hypersensitivity, where a worker develops an allergic reaction later after the first contact. Allergies account for 20% of the total cases of contact dermatitis. The development of allergies depends on many factors like the nature of the contact and the substance’s nature (sensitizer).
The causes can be summarized as shown below;
| Substances | |
| Irritants | Sensitizers |
| Wet cement | Latex |
| Degreasers | Adhesives |
| Alkalis | Formaldehyde |
| Cutting oils | Nickel |
| Acids | Chromates |
| Solvents | Epoxy resins |
Symptoms
There are various symptoms of contact dermatitis on the skin. They include;
- Itching
- Pain
- Redness
- Swelling
- Small wheal or blister formation
Impact on the worker
Occupational dermatitis poses an individual with financial implications because of continuous medical treatment .It also negatively impacts an individual by reducing their working capability, thus being absent from work many times. Other effects include suffering and pain to affected individuals or workers.
Preventative measures
Prevention of allergic and irritant contact dermatitis can be achieved by minimizing skin contact with the substances mentioned above through;
- Removing such substances from the working environment.
- Substituting such substances with less hazardous substances.
- Proper hand washing and cream application are considered the best preventive measure to minimize contact between the skin and hazardous substance because it is washed off. Individuals should use hot or cold running water together with hand cleaners then apply hand creams.
- Utilizing personal protective gear or equipment such as protective clothing and gloves hinders the skin from directly coming into contact with such hazardous substances.
Plan Action
| Action | Objective |
| Formulate work participation policies. | OSH policies will act as means of communication among healthcare workers.Worker participation will be aimed at ensuring the safety of healthcare workers is attained through training and emergency arrangements Enough resources will help in mitigating hazards and provide inclusive participation of the workers |
| Organizing | Employers have the overall responsibility of maintaining the safety of workers by ensuring they are responsible and accountable.Competence and intense training on OSH competencies help young workers to acknowledge safety measures.Controlling hazards and risks will be achieved.Availing occupational safety and health to workers on their respective duties is important to mitigate risks. |
| Hazard prevention | Engineering controls are used in controlling hazards.Designing safe work systems minimize hazards.Appropriate provision of personal protective equipment is for eliminating residual risks and hazards. |
Recommendation
Healthcare leaders should ensure occupational safety and health policies are in line with OSH (occupational safety and health) depending on the facility’s nature. The best performance should be achieved by continuous and periodic evaluation of the hazard prevention measures. Besides, the emergency prevention team should be well equipped and maintained to identify potential emergencies and accidents alongside addressing OSH risk prevention strategies. Organizations should procure safety and health requirements that confine to legal laws and regulations before their use. Finally, performance monitoring and evaluation of safety strategies should be done often to provide corrective and preventive strategies.
References
Alduais, S.A., and Salama, K.F., 2019. Assessment of Ambient-Noise Exposure among Female Nurses In Surgical Cardiac Intensive Care Unit. Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare, 12, p.1007.
Dressner, M.A., and Kissinger, S.P., 2018. Occupational injuries and illnesses among registered nurses. Monthly Lab. Rev., 141, p.1.
Health and Safety Authority, 2021. Occupational Asthma and Dermatitis. Retrieved from: https://www.hsa.ie/eng/Workplace_Health/Occupational_Asthma_and_Dermatitis/
Health and Safety Authority, 2021. Workplace Stress. Retrieved from: https://www.hsa.ie/eng/Workplace_Health/Workplace_Stress/Overview/Workplace_Stress_FAQs.html
Health Service Executive, 2019. Pre-Placement health assessment. Retrieved from: https://healthservice.hse.ie/staff/benefits-services/occupational-health/health-assessment.html
Papadatou, Z., 2019. Exploring occupational irritant hand dermatitis amongst healthcare workers in NHS Grampian (Doctoral dissertation).
Phiri, L.P., Draper, C.E., Lambert, E.V. and Kolbe-Alexander, T.L., 2014. Nurses’ lifestyle behaviors, health priorities, and barriers to living a healthy lifestyle: a qualitative descriptive study. BMC nursing, 13(1), pp.1-11.
Starc, J., 2018. Stress factors among nurses at the primary and secondary level of public sector health care: the case of Slovenia. Open Access Macedonian journal of medical sciences, 6(2), p.416.
