Manual Handling And Infection Control: Risk Assessment And Precautions

RISK ASSESSMENT EXAMPLE

Task:

Julie cleans rooms. The task involves vacuuming the room, cleaning the bathroom and making the beds. The beds are heavy, queen-sized beds, and must be pulled across the room for vacuuming.

Does the task involve repetitive or sustained postures, movements or forces?

Yes. The task of cleaning the rooms requires the postures, movements and forces to be done more than twice a minute or for more than 30 seconds at a time.

Is the task done for more than two hours over a whole shift or continually for more than 30 minutes at a time?

Yes. Julie cleans rooms for more than two hours a day.

Does the task involve high force?

Yes. Julie has to move each bed away from its position in the room to vacuum under it, and then move the bed back again. As the beds are hard to move, this task involves high force. Julie also has to bend and twist her back while using high force to move the bed (Aven T. , 2012).

Is there a risk?

Yes. The task is assessed as a risk because it involves repetitive and sustained postures, movements and forces, and long duration (yes in step 1a and 1b). It is also assessed as a risk because it involves high force.

Are environmental factors increasing the risk?

No

RISK ASSESSMENT

Task:

Cleaning of garden and examining for pests in order to reduce it.

What is the manual handling task you are assessing? Describe it.

Operating of the lawn mower, cleaning of the bush, cutting grass using other instruments.

Does the task involve repetitive or sustained postures, movements or forces?

The task involve repetitive or sustained postures, movements or forces as cleaning is a heavy task.

Is the task performed for more than two hours over a whole shift or continually for more than 30 minutes at a time?

The task performed for more than two hours over a whole shift as the garden is a wide stretch of land. There is a wide stretch of garden that has several bushes and plants that has to be cleaned.  

Does the task involve high force?

The task involve high force for movement of various machineries and other instruments.

Is there a risk? If so, describe it.

There are huge amounts of risks involved in the task. Moving of various instruments can cause risks from personal or accidental injuries.

Are environmental factors increasing the risk?

Environmental factors does increase risks as any type of insect or harmful plant can cause injury.

Who should you report any hazards or risks to?

In cases of hazards occurring, the floor manager should be immediately reported to. Your supervisor

Consequences

1 -Insignificant

Dealt with by in-house first aid, etc.

2 – Minor

Medical help needed. Treatment by medical professional/hospital outpatient, etc.

3 – Moderate

Significant non-permanent injury.

Overnight hospitalisation (inpatient).

4 – Major

Extensive permanent injury (eg. loss of finger/s).

Extended hospitalisation.

5 – Catastrophic

Death.

Permanent disabling injury (eg. blindness, loss of hand/s, quadriplegia).

Likelihood

A  Almost certain to occur in most circumstances

High (H)

High (H)

Extreme (X)

Extreme (X)

Extreme (X)

B  Likely to occur frequently

Moderate (M)

High (H)

High (H)

Extreme (X)

Extreme (X)

C  Possible and likely to occur at some time

Low (L)

Moderate (M)

High (H)

Extreme (X)

Extreme (X)

D  Unlikely to occur but could happen

Low (L)

Low (L)

Moderate (M)

High (H)

Extreme (X)

E  May occur but only in rare and exceptional circumstances

Low (L)

Low (L)

Moderate (M)

High (H)

High (H)

Your state or territory:

VICTORIA

The link, URL, or website that has the Code of Practice:

 https://www.worksafe.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/207989/NOC-Manual-handling-code-of-practice-2000-04.pdf

Factors from the Code of Practice

Brief description of the factor and how it applies to your role:

1 Recognising risks

Reduces possible risks of accidents and injuries.

2 Committing to include precautions for reducing risks

 Allows practising of work as per code of practice by reducing possible risks. Use correct manual handling techniques to minimise risk.

3 Arranging in order to include compliance monitoring

Compliance monitoring will help worker abide by all rules and procedures.  Compliance will make sure employer must adhere to provide safe working conditions to employees and safety wear to protect them from injuries.

Situations where additional precautions are required:

Identify the additional precaution/name the PPE you would use:

2. Smoking

2. Smoking can interfere with healing process by damaging airways. It can lead to increase chances of lung infections. Therefore, smoking has to be prohibited.  This is a standard precaution

3. Managing Diabetes

 ????? please be specific on what infection you are referent to

3. In case of a diabetic patient, blood sugar levels has to be kept under control.

As a support worker you will need to have contact with all clients-what additional precautions will be needed?

Scenario

Answer

A. The support worker has come down with the flu. They decide to go to work anyway, as they know the facility is short staffed.

(a)  Using mask and face cover mandatory, as duty of care will  help prevent risks from infections.

(b)  Hands needs to be washed frequently for avoiding spread of any infection. As a duty of care give worker sick leave to avoid spread of infection and give time to worker recover from flu.

NYS  Please re think if this worker should be attending work in regards to duty of care to clients and other staff

B. A client has defecated on the floor. The support worker cleans this up with the kitchen cloth, rinses the cloth out afterwards, and then returns it to the kitchen sink.

(a)  Support worker needs to sterilise the cloth after cleaning the defecation.

(b) Workers should ideally dispose the cloth and should not have used kitchen cloth for the same.  

C. The staff member assists a client with their toileting by wearing gloves and using disposable wipes.

(a)  Support worker needs to dispose off gloves and wipes posts their usage.

(b) To avoid infection from spreading, disinfectant needs to be used. toilets has to be cleaned properly.   

D. A client has a cold. Using a paper tissue, the staff member wipes the client’s nose whenever it is wet, gives the client the medication they are prescribed, and keeps them home from their activity centre for the day.

(a)  Support worker needs to use disposable wipes and throw  them after use.

(b)  Keeping such wipes might actually increase infection from spreading therefore all such wipes needs to be disposed within packets through dustbin regularly.

E. A client has cut himself on a knife in the kitchen and there is blood on the floor. The support worker puts disposable gloves on and wipes up the blood with disposable paper wipes, then uses disinfectant and more disposable wipes to go over the surface again. All cleaning cloths and gloves are wrapped in a plastic bag and sealed before being placed in the biohazard bin.

(a) Support worker puts on gloves and wipes for cleaning blood with disposable paper and then throws into plastic bags prior to throwing in biohazard bin (Vose, 2008). This will reduce infection, however all surfaces has to be cleaned using disinfectant for reducing possible risks of spreading any infection.  

(b) Placing in plastic bags before disposing them off will help reduce potential diseases risks but all areas has to be cleaned including knife. It is best that the knife is throw or sterilised prior to its next usage.  

F. The client has a contagious disease. No specific methods have been put into place to prevent the spread of disease, as the support worker believes that everything will be okay as long as everybody washes their hands regularly

(a) Support workers not adopting any specific method for reducing infection or spread of disease might actually increase risks. The client has to be kept in a secluded manner and gloves and masks needs to be put on prior to handling him.  

(b) There needs to regular disinfecting of all surfaces and areas for avoiding spread of diseases.   

Identify which of the scenarios above will require the support worker to alert their supervisor, or designated person(s) to the situation.

(20-50 words)

Supervisors needs to be alerted by support workers in every case that there is for spreading of contagious disease. There has to be safety guidelines along with possibility of all strategies included for ensuring safety of client at aged care. Supervisor has to be alerted regarding all scenarios apart from situation C. In case of scenario B, strategies can be put in place for client to avoid the situation for occurring.   

You should be alerting your supervisor to all scenarios except C

For scenario B-strategies can be put into place for this client  to avoid this from re occurring

What other WHS issues would you alert your supervisor, or designated WHS person(s) to?

WHS issues that needs to be reported to supervisor or WHS persons are risks from spread of infectious disease. All other procedures for maintaining cleanliness and safety of other client parties has to be ensured in an appropriate manner.