Experts recommend that employers use a “hierarchy of controls” to protect workers by controlling exposures to occupational hazards. This discussion question requires you to practice using the hierarchy of controls model. Imagine that you are the director of safety and health at one of the healthcare settings below. Each of these settings is dealing with an issue discussed in detail in this module.
Respiratory Hazards Download Respiratory Hazards: The rate of nurses at a free community health clinic who have contracted tuberculosis and influenza has remained at more than 20% over the last three flu seasons, resulting in multiple days off work for staff.
Safe Patient Handling Download Safe Patient Handling: A nursing home where two-thirds of the patients are 70 years or more and use wheelchairs has noticed that the number of nursing assistants filing workers’ compensation claims due to injuries related to lifting patients has increased at the same rate as the increase in new residents.
Workplace Violence Download Workplace Violence: An emergency room in the center of a city with a large homeless population has had at least five staff members who were physically assaulted in confrontations with mentally ill patients every month for almost a year.
You have been asked to develop a systematic process for reducing these hazards. Follow these steps:
Review the materials which explain the hierarchy of controls and “prevention through design”;
Select one of the scenarios above (A, B, or C); and
Draft a policy that provides three methods for addressing each step in the hierarchy of controls.
Please label each section using the name of the step in the hierarchy of controls: elimination; substitution; engineering controls; administrative controls; and personal protective equipment (PPE).
The response should be written as if it’s an actual policy that directs the organization to do X, Y, Z (whatever the protocol is).
There is a reading associated with each of the scenarios. You can skim the readings that are not listed as required. They are just references to help you strategies that you can incorporate into your policy.
