Many people think of hospitals as places where patients go to find out what ailments they have and get moving on a treatment plan. For the employees who work at hospitals, the hazards that they encounter on a daily basis are shocking.
Safety tips for hospitals often center around patient care safety, such as proper lifting techniques. While these are important, you should also think about some of the hazards in hospitals that are lesser known.
Slip hazards
There are many reasons why a person might slip at a hospital. Wet floors from the almost constant cleaning is one such prevalent risk. Nurses and others who work at hospitals are often told to wear non-slip shoes. There are some instances in which these might not be terribly helpful, though.
Some areas of the hospital, such as the emergency room or surgery suites, might have bodily fluids and other substances on the floors. This can make them very slippery. Workers who slip on these floors can suffer injuries like brain injuries and broken bones.
They also risk coming into contact with contaminated bodily fluids, which can lead to disease transmission if the patient had a communicable disease.
Emotional trauma
Having to deal with the tragedies that come into a hospital day after day can have a toll on the emotional health of employees. Nurses and others who have direct contact with patients are likely to suffer from this emotional trauma more than people who don’t have that one-on-one contact with these individuals.
Medical professionals who are feeling depressed might be ashamed to get help. Ignoring these feelings can lead to more harm than good. If these individuals starts to spiral downward, they might not be able to provide optimal patient care and may find that they can’t do their jobs.
Physical attacks
It is possible that nurses and other hospital employees might be injured when they are hit, kicked or otherwise battered by a patient or a patient’s family. Even if the person wasn’t in one’s right mind, the effects of the physical attack are still there for the employee. This could lead to the person having to take time off of work and it could lead to emotional trauma like what was discussed in the prior section.
In all of these cases, the employee might need to seek medical or mental health care. One might also need time off of work. Workers’ compensation may be helpful in these situations so that the employee can get back up to par before going back to caring for others.