Health safety and security for health and social care Essay

Potential Hazards and the Harm that may arise from each in a Health and Social Care Setting In this unit 3 assignment, I will be explaining the potential hazards and the harm that may arise from each (physical environment, equipment, infections, working conditions, working practices and security conditions) in a health and social care environment. These settings can include day centers, hospitals, health centers, schools, residential and nursing homes, private homes, and nurseries. First I will define each of them and then explain 6 hazards that may harm an individual. A hazard is something that is dangerous which can cause harm to you or any other individual and cause pain, especially if nothing is done to reduce the risk. Physical Environment Physical environment incorporates anything around ranging from different objects, people, pets, the temperature, buildings and also the air. This can have a great impact on the health of individuals and staff. If a room is not well ventilated with any windows so that there is fresh air flowing around, then the bacteria from different people with influenzas and cold can spread around the room and those germs when they sneeze or a cough can make it contagious for other people to catch very easily. Temperature is how hot or an object, subject or person is measured in degrees. Temperature can cause various complications to persons with disabilities, babies and older people because they find it difficult to sustain their body temperature, as it is very important to keep yourself wrapped up very warm to reduce the cold breeze from off of their body. It can cause bronchitis and other respiratory problems. Fumes and smoke that may be contaminated the air in the room because of fires (house fires, factory or building) or leakage (gas, petrol) can cause persons to inhale it and eventually die. Persons with very light skin who go to the beach or just going on picnics with residents or the residents themselves from within a care home may be exposing themselves to too much sun and not protecting their skin with sunblock or even a hat can which can cause skin cancer. Water that has been spilled and left on the ground can be a hazard to anyone in a care home as they may not see the water on the floor to avoid it and can slip and end up injuring themselves by damaging their spine or even fracturing their limbs. Blocked fire exists can be a hazard as it should be clear at all times in case of an emergency so that you are able to leave the building quickly. If the exits are blocked and persons try to run to that exist then they can run into the thing or even push down someone causing that indivi dual to be trampled on and fracture their ribs or have a head injury. Equipment You may find different equipment in a care home which can include overloaded sockets, wheelchairs, chairs, hot surface of a cup, broken piece of furniture, walking stick. These are equipment which is used daily in care homes. In a care, there may be certain things which you may need to plug in but overloading the sockets is not an option as the amount of energy that would be generating from the electricity can cause it to spark and go up in flames. Persons near these plugs may end up being burnt on any part of their body which may cause them to lose some of their skin or even death. Tripping over the cords if it is not properly protected by being covered over causing to cut their lips or fractures to some parts of their body or by even hitting their head onto something causing them to become unconscious and have brain damage. If persons use their wet hands to either plug in or out any plugs it can be very dangerous as they can be electrocuted these hazards may cause people to be trap ped in the building because the elderly are not able to move as quickly as they would like to. An elderly can be at risk of falling out of the wheelchair when being pushed if they are not safely secured to the chair. This may cause individuals to bruise or fracture themselves as elderly people are very fragile. If left in the way the wheelchair can cause someone to hit their feet into it causing bruising and swelling to the toes. Chairs can also be another set of hazards that can harm someone when left in the way as it can also injure their feet if they hit into it. This can cause bleeding, swelling, bruising and obviously pain to the individual’s feet. Broken equipment such as a chair that needs to be thrown out because it is weak if the chair is left in everyone’s way and one of the elderly sits in it the chair will give way causing the individual to land on the floor and have back injury or even shift their pelvis out of alignment. Sometimes these scales can be very serious and life-threatening as they will need to seek medical attention. When giving the elder ly anything that may be hot you have to be careful as it may burn their hands and they may end up dropping the tea or cup over their legs or hands causing it to scald them. This can cause blisters and charred, black or red skin. Sometimes in a care, an elderly person may be sitting down but does not put the walking stick out of anyone’s way. A carer or another elderly person may be passing and does not see the stick will end up tripping over the walking stick and hurt the elderly person’s feet causing pain and swelling to that individual and to the person that fell they may have bruising.