Reviewing the Health and Safety Policy

Introduction

This essay aims to review a chosen health and safety policy, designed for staff in a care organization "HEALTH AND SAFETY POLICY 1999”. This health and safety work policy is associated with managing staff’s overall health and safety at work and managing the risk associated with their life in a care setting (legislation.govt.nz, 2021). Legislative requirements are met using a quality coordinator and safety officer while this policy is in action. This report offers the organizational people to understand their health and safety rights while working and keeping them safe within a care setting. This report aims to provide “provide and maintain safe systems of work and healthy working conditions in compliance with all relevant statutory requirements”. The legislation supports delivering appropriate PPE kits to the care person due to the sudden outbreak of covid-19. Hence, it relates appropriately with care setting and their staff safety issue. The policy document is expected to provide resource, facilities, education, information and supervision on the health practices for staff in medical care setting.

Analysis

In current situation of covid 19, the care homes need to think about staff safety with topmost priority. The report helps in identifying priority lists that will be applicable in employee safety and the safety aspects suggested by this law (Morphet et al. 2019). Challenge was to improve safety for employees and facilitate major risks. This policy is applicable in covid-care home setting as it identified the requirement of using personal protection equipment as well as protecting the staff from sudden physical injuries cause by fire or chemical exposure. Risk management is promoted using these particular health policies inside this organization. In covid care, homes the employees need to maintain their safety as much as possible. During the pandemic situation, workers in covid wards have to wear personal protective equipments and they should have enough sanitation maintained. As described by Merve (2019), disease caused by the exposure of viruses and physical injury related to a working environment is covered within this policy.

Objectives of this policy:

Ensuring that each member in the workplace is protected (Potter et al. 2017)

Develop health and safety culture which ensures full participation of staff members

Defining health and safety responsibilities and organizational arrangements

Closed loop health and safety operations to provide adequate personal protection equipments

Risk management is effectively promoted as the staff is asked to wear safety kits that will helps them free of viruses maintain a healthy life style. The act prevents misuse of any medicine by staff taking care in healthcare. NHS approved policy helps in “plan, do, check and act” process. Arrangements are made sure to process effective procedures that will provide the staff relief from physical injuries encountered at work (england.nhs.uk, 2021). Special chemicals are used for sanitation purposes. Now, the staff should be protected from chemical hazards, as it needs to be stored in appropriate places. Occupational health and safety services are required to be attended by staff as per this policy for the staff’s own betterment.

Understanding the occupational working conditions code 2019 is essential for the management of this policy. Five elements of an effective safety culture are associated with responsibility, accountability, ethics, clear expectations, and managing the next steps. The legal responsibility of health and safety is associated with the generation of an adequate safe environment in the workplace. Any harm caused to a person in the workplace should be addressed and reported. Safety success is managed using management leadership, hazard prevention, and control, hazard identification assessment along with coordination of employers (Memish et al. 2017). Employers need to identify the applicable components of health regulation associated with their work setting. Safety risk management, safety assurance, and safety promotion are explicitly associated with the policy taken into consideration.

As described by Leso, Fontana, and Iavicoli (2018), some common safety measures undertaken for chemical hazard management is found out as:

Development of safe working procedures

Regulating environments and medical systems

Uses of personal protective equipment

Contemporary health and safety linking to risk behavior

Health and safety act has been improvised since ages, there is maximum highlight provided on the employee safety by using personal protective equipment in healthcare or in any local organization. The risk behavior is associated with cleaning staff, health professionals and doctor and nurses. Allowing outside visitors after taking adequate protection will be done. The policy being reviewed takes on effective disposal of the PPE items. Non-effective disposal might become a reason of spreading disease in current context. Care home risk assessment following the norms will be as follows:

Focusing on stress and anxiety: The Staff and residents need to share communication on following exact guidance that will treat coronavirus. Up-to-date information on well being of people required to be spread instead of the threat as per the laws (Memish et al. 2017)

Cleaning environment:

This law supports adequate cleaning in care home not only for the safety of residents, also for the staff members. Safeguarding patients from cleaning products and cleaning every nook and corner of the care setting has become important.

Fire and emergencies:

This law talks about emergency management and safety of staff in case of a fire is spread in care homes. The staff is supposed to have access to all emergency evacuation of the building. There should be routine checkups done on electronic item, therefore, a sudden break of fire will not occur. Care and non-care staff should be familiar with the place to ensure their own safety as well as the patients. Emergency reporting services should be available.

Impact on risk assessment:

As stated by Kalweit et al. (2020), creating a board is important in the assessment of the employee health and safety laws. In a care setting, it becomes important to identify which elements are dangerous. Since, the disease spreads easily with breath of persons, the covid care homes need to organize ventilation. Right to clean air, clean place to work is identified to be listed in health and safety act. Risk assessment can be done via using thorough medical surveillance. Protective facemasks and goggles for eyes should be used to manage virus from being entered inside the nose (Iavicoli et al. 2018).

Onsite injuries and chronic disease management can be done using a risk management framework that will calculate risk occurring tendency in a particular work setting. As explained by Hammer et al. (2019), it follows the components of the OHS act. This activity contributes to the general duty of “ensuring reasonably practicable the health, safety, and welfare at work of all their employees”. Employees also have to follow the compliance of this work and manage the systems.

It also focuses on three fundamental rights of an organization that involves the right to manage health and safety and understand each nook and corner of the safety process. They are given the right to refuse work, which can affect their health and safety along with others. As commented by Giorgi et al. (2018), hazard control and employee risk management should start at ground levels, as they are the most exposed ones to the viruses in the care home setting being considered. Administration and higher authorities are rather less vulnerable than ground staff. Monitoring and enforcing compliance with the OHS act and regulations is ideally observed for promotions of public awareness and discussing occupational health safety measures.

Training to all involved persons within this setup is important to process. According to Flynn et al. (2018), Research, information and training, and education are important aspects of a health and safety act to be enforced. Risk assessment can be conducted based on the following criteria:

Identifying risk group: The residents and staff group is identified to be in risk in care homes. Resident of care home might become aggressive and throw an object on the staff. This might cause an injury to the care staff. Hence, such instances are covered inside the act. Staff might get injuries due to slipping on wet flooring. Such physical injuries are supposed to be covered by the workplace (england.nhs.uk, 2021).

Identifying hazards: Talking with staff and service user regarding the workplace hazards can be a part of immense health risk assessment. It is important to observe whether the covid cares are vaccinated fully on time or not. The PPE kits are provided on time or not should be assessed. Deficiency of sanitizers, health supplements for staff care in covid care homes has to be fulfilled by department of health as per laws.

Conclusion

This essay has successfully identified health and safety risk in a care organization and how it is managed using the act reviewed. Leadership initiatives are important for effective health and safety legislation to be achieved. Policies play a key role in the institutional management of safety standards. The behavioral analysis of health and safety acts is evidence of effectiveness in the occupational health act. Providing written documentation of health and safety is important in the workplace. Workers' basic rights have been preserved in this act and it is explained that workers too have right to decline a work if it is having a life threat.

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References

Journals

Flynn, J.P., Gascon, G., Doyle, S., Matson Koffman, D.M., Springer, C., Grossmeier, J., Tivnan, V. and Terry, P., 2018. Supporting a culture of health in the workplace: a review of evidence-based elements. American Journal of Health Promotion, 32(8), pp.1755-1788.

Giorgi, G., Leon-Perez, J.M., Pignata, S., Demiral, Y. and Arcangeli, G., 2018. Addressing risks: mental health, work-related stress, and occupational disease management to enhance well-being. Hammer, L.B., Truxillo, D.M., Bodner, T., Pytlovany, A.C. and Richman, A., 2019. Exploration of the impact of organisational context on a workplace safety and health intervention. Work & Stress, 33(2), pp.192-210.

Iavicoli, S., Valenti, A., Gagliardi, D. and Rantanen, J., 2018. Ethics and occupational health in the contemporary world of work. International journal of environmental research and public health, 15(8), p.1713.

Kalweit, A., Herrick, R.F., Flynn, M.A., Spengler, J.D., Berko Jr, J.K., Levy, J.I. and Ceballos, D.M., 2020. Eliminating Take-Home Exposures: Recognizing the Role of Occupational Health and Safety in Broader Community Health. Annals of work exposures and health, 64(3), pp.236-249.

Leso, V., Fontana, L. and Iavicoli, I., 2018. The occupational health and safety dimension of Industry 4.0. La Medicina del lavoro, 109(5), p.327.

Memish, K., Martin, A., Bartlett, L., Dawkins, S. and Sanderson, K., 2017. Workplace mental health: An international review of guidelines. Preventive Medicine, 101, pp.213-222.

Merve, E.R.O.L., 2019. Occupational health and work safety systems in compliance with industry 4.0: Research directions. International Journal of eBusiness and eGovernment Studies, 11(2), pp.119-133.

Morphet, J., Griffiths, D., Beattie, J. and Innes, K., 2019. Managers’ experiences of prevention and management of workplace violence against health care staff: A descriptive exploratory study. Journal of nursing management, 27(4), pp.781-791.

Potter, R.E., Dollard, M.F., Owen, M.S., O'Keeffe, V., Bailey, T. and Leka, S., 2017. Assessing a national work health and safety policy intervention using the psychosocial safety climate framework. Safety science, 100, pp.91-102.

Websites

england.nhs.uk, 2021. Available at: [Accessed on 14/06/2021]

legislation.govt.nz, 2021. Available at: [Accessed on 14/06/2021]