Healthcare professionals undertake one of the most critical jobs in the United States of America and other regions of the globe. However, medical professionals are prone to injuries emanating from a hazardous job environment. Tight schedules and burnouts characterize the pharmaceutical industry, and most noticeable, injuries and illnesses due to continued and prolonged exposure to harm while attending to patients. Nurses, physicians, technicians, laboratory experts, clinicians, and other medical professionals can also be injured by numerous objects or people on their course of tending to the sick. This paper evaluates injuries as healthcare issues, further detailing strategies that can be adopted by healthcare organizations to curtail this stressor.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2019) states that over 18 million employees in the medical and pharmacy sectors in the United States are exposed to risks daily. The report also identifies illnesses and non-fatal diseases to be more prevalent among professionals in the healthcare industry compared to any other service delivery field. Even though providing care entails doing numerous jobs including acting as a home caregiver, nursing, and diagnosing medications, all these fields share specific risks that heighten the chances of a worker contracting an ailment of getting an injury. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2019) identify repetitive stress and burnouts, manual lifting of patients, pricks from needles, slips and falls, violence, understaffing, and infections as among the leading causes of suffering and injuries among hospital staffs.
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B. Joseph and M. Joseph (2016) asserts that there exist more than 59 Million medical providers across the world. The authors also echo sentiments of the World Health Organization, which identify the recognition of healthcare issuers as the most critical asset in the medical field. Nonetheless, the article also recognizes the hospital and healthcare environment as among the most dangerous work environment for affiliated professionals. Staffs in this industry are continuously exposed to a number of hazards including biological contact with ailments caused by pathogens (such as Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and tuberculosis), attacks from mentally unstable patients, standing for prolonged period, long working duration, injuries from hospital equipment, and other perils such as exposure to noise and radiation (B. Joseph & M. Joseph, 2016). The article proposes educating the staffs in the different levels of organizations as a therapeutic and preventive mechanism. Vaccinations and other associated initiatives can assist curb the spread of infectious diseases.
Many organizations across the world avail a number of alternatives for injured or affected physicians (B. Joseph & M. Joseph, 2016). For instance, a medical provider, if injured during service delivery, is entitled to compensation and other benefits. The organization can provide the reimbursement willingly, or the affected party can sue for compensation. The act of compensating permits the employee to cover medical costs and any other damage inflicted due to interactions with patients in the course of their work environment. Exposure to toxins and stress that result from interacting with sick and mentally disturbed patients can trigger both emotional and physical distress, leading to injuries. In such a scenario, the employer is expected to act diligently by advancing benefits and care to the affected professional (B. Joseph & M. Joseph, 2016). If the affected healthcare expert becomes completely disabled or cannot perform regular duties (either permanently or temporarily) as a result of injuries from a workplace, he or she is accorded full disability benefits. However, a professional who opts to switch to another occupation after undergoing an injury is only granted partial disability injury (B. Joseph & M. Joseph, 2016). In the most severe cases involving the demise of the affected, death benefits are passed over to the surviving dependents.
Given that workplace injury and illnesses among the staffs are not only a significant issue but also a financial problem, the hospital and entire healthcare industry becomes affected since each player has to care for the sick. It is, therefore, imperative for individuals, medical centers, and the whole sector as whole to draft strategies to curb this problem. There exists a number of solutions for this menace. Organizations now support and encourage the culture of safety to lessen injuries (B. Joseph, & M. Joseph, 2016). Hospitals are keen to analyze who is involved and why the person was injured. Nurses and caregivers tasked with lifting patients and helping move disabled people from one location to another are encouraged to avoid risky tasks and also file complaints if they are ever threatened by working in a hospital (B. Joseph & M. Joseph, 2016). For example, nurses are especially reminded to refrain from lifting too heavy equipment or operating in an environment that is likely to affect their health. Leaders set examples by practicing caution while supervisors take control of resolving everyday life hazards (like wet floors) hence minimizing preventable risks.
Hospitals face numerous challenges in the bid to overcome injuries at workplaces. Nonetheless, organizations can benefit from multiple safety and health strategies that are in place to ensure workers are covered. A number of opportunities (like immunizing medical professionals and repairing faulty machinery) can be cost-efficient, long-term, and practical (B. Joseph & M. Joseph, 2016). The strategy of continuous improvement which includes constant safety checks and undertaking surveys to determine workers’ perception on existing standards, can help shape an organization’s system hence preventing further illnesses and injuries (B. Joseph & M. Joseph, 2016). The practice of collecting, processing, analyzing, summarizing, and presenting data is imperative as it aids in unveiling the facility’s strengths and weaknesses especially in the case involving handling unruly and mentally challenged patients (B. Joseph & M. Joseph, 2016). Effective programs for handling the sick will lessen the workload to be completed by nurses and also pave the way for fine-tune systems, reducing fatalities among medical experts.
References
Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (2019, June 20). CDC - Health Care Workers - NIOSH Workplace Safety and Health Topic . Retrieved from U.S. Department of Health & Human Services website: https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/healthcare/default.html
Joseph, B., & Joseph, M. (2016). The health of the healthcare workers. Indian Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine , 20 (2), 71.
