Part A: Identify sources of risk to personal safety, assess the level of risk and follow risk minimisation procedures
Case scenarios
Read the case scenarios below, and for each:
- Identify the risk to personal safety
- Identify the negative effect that might result from the risk
- Suggest a procedure to minimize the risk
- Identify what organizational policies and procedures are likely to be related to the risk.
- You accompany and Occupational Therapist on a home visit to a client; the client’s hot water system is very old. In the process of running a bath for the client you find the temperature of the water from the hot tap is scalding hot.
- A client becomes agitated and starts yelling at his wife in the waiting area; he threatens to hit her unless she leaves.
- You have been asked to provide support to a new client in your service. Information about the client’s needs was not provided to you prior to your shift. When you go into the room, you notice used syringes on the bedside table.
- An emergency is any unexpected event that has the potential to result in injury or the loss of life. Emergencies can include events requiring evacuation. There is usually a difference in sound between the alarm given for an emergency and the one given for evacuation.
Describe the different emergency alarm signals and detail how to respond to them.
- Identify some situations in which duress alarms would assist with a support worker’s personal safety.
- Identify some factors that might make you feel concerned that there was a potential risk to your personal safety when working in a typical health care facility.
- Identify how WHS issues are regulated within the health sector.
- Good WHS practices in the workplace assists with sustainability of resources. For example, in organizations where WHS is treated appropriately and the worker’s safety is taken seriously, there tends to be less staff turnover and less staff sickness.
Give two (2) examples of how WHS practices could improve staff safety and increase the sustainability of staff and/or resources.
- A WHS checklist is the best way to help identify hazards when doing an inspection. Once hazards are identified, housekeeping can take place or solutions can be implemented to ensure the hazard is controlled.
Specific to your role, name three (3) areas and give one possible hazard for each.
Part B: Identify manual handling hazards, assess related risk and follow risk minimisation procedures
Complete the tasks and answer the questions below.
- Identify a minimum of five manual handling hazards in the health sector.
Look at the example below of a risk assessment for the task of cleaning rooms in a nursing home (taken from the Code of Practice for Manual Handling, Victoria, 2000).
Risk assessment example—Cleaning rooms
Damien cleans rooms in a low-care residential facility where all clients have their own furniture. The task involves vacuuming the room, cleaning the bathroom and making the beds. The beds are mostly heavy, queen-sized beds, and must be pulled across the room for vacuuming beneath.
Does the task involve repetitive or sustained postures, movements or forces? Yes. The task of cleaning the rooms requires the postures, movements and forces to be done more than twice a minute or for more than 30 seconds at a time.
Is the task done for more than two hours over a whole shift or continually for more than 30 minutes at a time? Yes. Damien cleans rooms for more than two hours a day.
Does the task involve high force? Yes. Damien has to move each bed away from its position in the room to vacuum under it, and then move the bed back again. As the beds are hard to move, this task involves high force. Damien also has to bend and twist his back while using high force to move the bed.
Is there a risk? Yes. The task is assessed as a risk because it involves repetitive and sustained postures, movements and forces, and long duration (yes in step 1a and 1b). It is also assessed as a risk because it involves high force.
Are environmental factors increasing the risk? No.
Choose one (1) of the manual handling tasks that you have identified in Question 10 and, based upon this, complete a risk assessment using the same questions.
- What is the risk?
- Does the task involve repetitive or sustained postures, movements or forces?
- Is the task done for more than two hours over a whole shift or continually for more than 30 minutes at a time?
- Does the task involve high force?
- Is there a risk?
- Are environmental factors increasing the risk?
Look at the example below of a typical Risk Assessment Matrix and make an assessment as to whether the manual handling task you have assessed in Question 11 is of low, moderate, high or extreme risk. Write in the text box below where you think the risk lies on the matrix, then give a short explanation as to why you chose that category.
Example Risk: Moderate (M): if the client falls and the worker attempts to stop the fall. See table below.
Continuing with the manual handling risk example you have used from Questions 11 and 12 above, complete the hierarchy of control table based upon this manual handling task. Ensure that you make a suggestion for at least four control measure sections for the task.
| Heirarchy | Control Measure |
| Eliminate—the hazard or risk, discontinue the practice (e.g.teach the person to transfer himself or herself). | |
| Substitute—substitute the hazard for something that gives rise to a lesser risk (e.g. choose a venue with a lift). | |
| Isolation—isolate the hazard, separate the hazard in time or space (e.g. use of a hoist). | |
| Engineer—design and plan for safety (e.g. create a ramp, widen doorways). | |
| Administration—change work methods, develop safe work practices and procedures (e.g. give people a pamphlet of how to perform the task safely). | |
| Personal protective equipment—(e.g. appropriate footwear for manual handling) |
- Within a typical healthcare organisation:
- identify the policies and procedures that state what you must do regarding manual handling
- describe why it is important to follow these risk minimisation procedures
- identify what can go wrong if these procedures are not followed.
- Research the Manual Handling Code of Practice for your state and providing the name and year it
was released.
- Identify at least two (2) factors from this code of practice that relate to manual handling and your
role as an allied health assistant.
- Create a table like the one below. For each of the scenarios, state what you would do to prevent the risk, as well as to respond to the risk should it occur within a Healthcare facility.
| Secnario | Actions to minimise the risk |
| Fire in the residence | |
| Slips in the bathroom | |
| Trips down stairs | |
| Client yelling and swearing in the community | |
| Client has a medical emergency—seizure | |
| Staff are stressed by long hours working double shifts due to low staff numbers | |
| Staff and clients at risk from violent client | |
| Staff do not wear appropriate PPE |
- Choose one of the risks listed above, using the risk assessment matrix in the previous question:
- a) describe the likelihood of the risk occurring
- b) if it did occur, what would be the likely outcome if the incident were managed poorly?
- Always follow the policies and procedures for reporting hazards and other WHS issues in the workplace.
Some WHS problems are bigger or more urgent than others. There are different ways to report big, small and urgent WHS problems. You must report to your supervisor or WHS representative anything in the workplace that you think could be hazardous. Reporting may be verbal or written in the form of hazard reports.
Examples of common hazards and incidents workers might report to the WHS representative:
Trip hazards- Are there any torn carpets that someone may catch their foot on and cause them to fall?
Infection concerns- Are gloves being worn when a care worker is handling soiled linen or clothing?
Electrical faults- Faulty plugs on electrical items
Equipment problems- The hoist is broken or is not working correctly
Identify to whom, and how, you report risks in a typical healthcare organization?
Part C: Contribute to WHS in the workplace
- Complete the table below with information on employee and employer rights and responsibilities regarding aspects of WHS, such as WHS consultation, PPE, training, reasonable care, and other aspects that you identify. For more information, see the following document
http://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/sites/SWA/about/Publications/Documents/717/Guide-to-the-WHS-Act.pdf
| Rights | Responsibilities | |
| Employee | ||
| Employer |
(Note: To do this within your browser highlight the entire table then copy and paste into the answer field below)
Case scenarios
Read the following case scenarios and explain for each and identify what you would do in each situation.
- The supervisor introduces a new way of doing things in order to improve safety. When the supervisor leaves, a support worker states that he does not agree with this procedure and that he will not do it.
- The supervisor asks the staff team to comment upon the new WHS policy and procedure.
- You notice a hazard in the work environment that the supervisor missed.
- A new procedure has been introduced and at the team meeting when it is reviewed, the supervisor asks for the team’s feedback.
- A new member to the allied health assistance role is complaining that the overalls and gloves are uncomfortable to wear when working with a client.
- What response would you give them on their responsibilities regarding use, storage and maintenance?
- How can you check that less experienced members of the team understand their WHS responsibilities?
- What can you do to aid them in their understanding?
- How can working as a collaborative team make the WHS process within the workplace more effective?
- Stress in a major cause of workplace safety errors and compensation claims.
- a) Name four symptoms that may indicate stress
- b) List three possible causes of stress in an individual
- c) Give three examples of how you can manage your levels of stress or fatigue.
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