Nurses and healthcare professionals have the most important jobs in the health care setting. Nurses are responsible for providing healthcare services to patients in medical clinics or even homecare setting. Patients are exposed to a risk of acquiring injuries through trips, slips, falls, and during handling.
One in four patients get injured while receiving healthcare (Ane, Luke, & Niek, 2018) . Additionally, over 130 million such incidents occur annually resulting in approximately 2.6 million deaths. It also found that patient handling injuries occur frequently including injuries to healthcare workers. Patients’ injuries continue to rise over the years.
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The causes of injuries in the health care setting include repetitive stress, patient handling activities, needle sticks, violence, and slips and falls. Overexertion or repetitive stress can be developed by nurses who work for a very long time without getting rest. Due to lack of enough rest, they can cause injuries to patients if they are not keen on the procedures they are undertaking. Patient handling activities can cause injuries especially when patients are being transferred from one position to another ( Perry & Ostendorf , 2016, p.28 ). Nurses undertake surgical procedures with needles which might be a risk factor to patients. If not properly disposed or patients get them, they may cause injury whether intentionally inflicted by the patients or not. Violent patients can cause injury to themselves and to the healthcare providers respectively. Another form of violence can be gotten from people who might rob health care facilities to steal drugs and in return cause violence to patients and health care providers.
Over the past years, falls have been recorded to be the highest risk factor causing injuries in the health care setting. Nurses are constantly faced with the challenge of preventing injuries among patients. The number of falls affects patients during treatment which can lead to accidental death to patients over the age of 65. The mortality rate for the elderly in the hospital have significantly reduced for both male and female patients who are older than 85. Additionally, an understaffed health care setting can cause injuries to patients due to overworked nurses. The pressure that nurses are under might confuse them when they are doing their duties and as a result, patients are likely to get different types of injuries.
There are some common types of injuries that are bound to be inflicted to patients in a health care setting. For instance, patients can get sprains and strains when they fall or get when they are strained which affects shoulders and the lower back. When transferring or changing the position of a patient, they can dislocate or slip their discs (Ane, Luke, & Niek, 2018) . There are some blood-borne diseases which a patient can develop after they are exposed to it through a used needle. In addition, airborne diseases can be easily transferred from one patient to another. Slip and falls can cause head injuries or even born fractures.
The role of nurses is to ensure that they prevent injuries of patients at all times. There are some measures that can be taken to protect the patients from themselves or any risk factors. Violent patients can be restricted from moving around to reduce the risk of being violent. Healthcare providers should work on a schedule that gives them enough time to rest so as to avoid any injuries they might cause to patients because of being overworked (Lynch & Duval , 2011) . Disposal of needles and sharp objects by nurses should be very vital in the health care setting.
Nursing practitioners are relevant to the health care system and they should be supported in every way possible so as to intervene in ways of preventing injuries to patients. It is important to intervene in ways which can reduce injuries in the health care setting so as to be able to deliver safe healthcare services to patients.
References
Ane, A., Luke, S., & Niek, K. (2018). The economics of patient safety in primary and ambulatory care: Flying blind . OECD Publishing; Éditions OCDE.
Lynch, V. A., & Duval, J. B. (2011). Forensic nursing science . St. Louis: Mosby/Elsevier.
Perry, A. G., Potter, P. A., & Ostendorf, W. (2016). Nursing interventions & clinical skills . St. Louis, Missouri: Elsevier.
