UHPAB QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS: OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH FOR NURSING STUDENTS BY TUTOR OKUDA MATTHEW OKELLO
LONG ESSAYS:
- As a health worker, a nurse/midwife is supposed to be skillful enough to recognize a health or safety hazard at his/her workplace
- What is the difference between health hazard and safety hazard? (5mks with @ definition 2.5mks @)
- A health hazard refers to any situation, event, agent, condition that can cause illness with acute or long term effects affecting part or whole of the body
- A safety hazard on the other hand refers to anything that can cause injury to an individual at workplace whenever safety controls (facility designs and regulations) are not adhered to by employers and employees.
- Describe health and safety hazards that nurses and midwives are exposed to at their places of employment (20mks)
- What is the difference between health hazard and safety hazard? (5mks with @ definition 2.5mks @)
HEALTH HAZARDS(18mks with each 3mks)
- Biological Hazards: include bacteria, viruses, fungi, protozoa, infestations acquired directly from patients, from ward environment or through handling infected materials or articles. This results in hospital acquired infections
- Physical Hazards: examples are extreme temperatures, radiations, burns and scalds from hot objects, liquids and electricity, physical violence from psychiatric patients and community members, etc
- Chemical hazards: drugs, alcohol, disinfectants, paints, mercury and other metals, dangerous gases and fumes emitted by some processes and machines, acids which can cause injuries when not properly handled
- Mechanical hazards: machine and equipment related injuries for those working in the workshops, builders, compound workers cleaning around, electricians, etc
- Workplace design (ergonomic) hazards: improper lighting systems, badly installed machines or electricity, poor ventilations, slippery floors, non – spacious environments, poor site construction, lack of vital facilities, unclear policies, rules and regulations, instructions, concerning certain activities, etc.
- Psycho – social hazards: unfavorable working conditions which are psychologically and socially stressful such as heavy workload, overtime, few staff, low pay, less motivated staff, harassment and intimidation at workplace, fault finding and accusations of wrong doing, etc.
SAFETY HAZARDS: (2mks with any 4 points at 0.5mks each)
- Slipping or tripling hazards on the floors such as obstacles, cords on the floor
- Lack of proper personal protective equipment
- Lifting, pulling and moving objects incorrectly
- Fire and explosion hazards
- Accidents from vehicles and other machines and equipments used
- Workplace violence; physical, verbal,
- Infection prevention and control has been a major challenge for health care practitioners in protecting their own and patients’ health.
- Outline ways in the above practitioners have contributed to hospital-acquired infections and injuries in health facilities (15mks with 1mk for @ point)
- Inadequate adherence to standard precautions
- Not washing hands as required
- Handling specimens without using gloves
- Failure to disinfect couches and delivery beds in between patients
- Doctors not washing hands in between pelvic examination
- Reconstituting medicines in hands
- Inadequate observation of aseptic technique
- Placing syringe and needle with drawn medicine on unclean surface
- Placing disinfectant in one bowl for all patients for the whole day
- Picking sterile cotton swabs with bare hands
- Withdrawing medications from multiple dose vials including Intravenous fluids with used syringes
- Use of unsterile syringes and needles to administer injections
- Carrying opened syringes and needles in hands to patient bed side
- Touching contaminated surfaces with clean gloves before procedures
- Using unsterile surgical/delivery equipment on patients
- Changing I/V lines of different patients with same gloves
- Placing sterile patient equipment on patients’ beds (canullae and canullae stoppers, I/V lines)
- Withdrawing medicines from multiple dose vials with used syringes
- Overcrowding with no isolation facilities
- Inadequate attention paid to Infection Prevention and Control
- Resource allocation, planning
- Poorly understood concept of infection control
- Infection Control not considered a service
- Healthcare delivery services are oriented towards curative other than preventive and or health promotion services
- Failure of facility managers to support staff to implement Infection Prevention and Control
- Poor attitude towards infection prevention and control
- Inadequate capacity
- Inadequate knowledge and skills
- Newly recruited health workers
- Non professional H/W (cleaners, waste handlers)
- Inadequate Human resource
- Low staffing levels
- Poor infrastructure
- Design
- Capacity
- Inadequate adherence to standard precautions
- Outline ways in the above practitioners have contributed to hospital-acquired infections and injuries in health facilities (15mks with 1mk for @ point)
- What specific interventions would you employ to prevent and or control the above infections in the wards as In – charges (10mks with 1mk for @ intervention)
- Motivate staffs to adherence to standard precautions and improve the safety of clinical procedures
- Promote hand washing
- Provision of adequate basic supplies and equipment
- Induction and on job training
- Improve infrastructure-design or redesigning
- In charges to conduct technical support
- Emphasis on Standard Precautions
- Hand washing
- Facility hygiene
- Use of Personal Protective Equipment
- Observe aseptic procedure
- Health care waste management
- Injection safety
- Surveillance for nosocomial infections
- Rational Drug us
- Motivate staffs to adherence to standard precautions and improve the safety of clinical procedures