Women in Medicine - Essay Example

Women in Medicine Thesis ment Even though there are several women who are currently involved in the medicine profession, there are still some pertinent issues to be addressed, for instance, planning safety and healthy working environments. 1.1 Factors to Consider when Planning Healthy and Safe Environments There are a number of factors that should be considered when planning healthy and safe indoor and outdoor environments and services. Those hazards vary from one environment to another, depending on the type of hazard expected in a particular place. Some of the factors include the potential occupants, type of anticipated hazard, availability of first aid kits, and proximity to a medical facility to cater for the injured women. Proper analysis and reviewing of such factors, which determine healthy and safe indoor and outdoor environments, will help determine the intervention mechanism to be used. For instance, medical officers must consider the potential occupants of given environments to facilitate the planning process. Failure to understand the occupants means that the healthcare experts might not receive any considerable change in scope due to the increasing number of injuries, which such people are likely to incur in the workplace (More 108). The other important factor is the type of hazard expected in particular environment. Through effective plans, the medical services providers could experience significant change regarding the type of hazards and the number of injured patients. In the recent years, such injuries might increase because the planners have not considered the actual hazards, which are specific to the environment. Factors such as the need to cut the cost associated with medical services have resulted into a considerable decline in the number of injuries in the work setting. The numbers of women at risk and the injured patients are expected to decline further in future with continued change in policies. This means the availability of first aid kits for assisting victims is an essential part of planning. Although these plans do not significantly vary by state, the number of patients in varies with state. Finally, proximity to a medical facility is another important factor since it affects the rate of admission of the injured women to the hospital. 1.2 How to Monitor and maintain Health and Safety in the Work Setting and how People are made Aware of Risks and Hazards and Encouraged to Work Safely. In monitoring and maintaining health and safety, a high standard of hygiene must be constantly checked and maintained. The care takers must ensure that the women are living under good hygienic conditions and practices, such as toileting, eating and playing in safe environments. The toilets, kitchen, dining place and playing ground must be always kept very clean and safe for the women to use. In addition, people in the work setting are made aware of risks and hazards, as well as are encouraged to work safely by training them on the ways to keep the environment clean and healthy. Equipping them with the first aid kits and knowledge to enable them swiftly respond to emergencies, accidents and incidents. In order to make people aware of risks and hazards and encouraged to work safely, they must be kept informed about the potential environmental threats. In addition, the workers should have food hygiene certificate to certify their ability to maintain the high standards of cleanliness. This would ensure that they work safely (Markward and Yegidis 91). 1.3 CSSIW, Welfare Requirement, Early Years Foundation Stage The sources of current guidance for planning health and safe environments and services, which are in accordance with the guidelines set by the CSSIW include the following. The Women’s Act, The Health and Safety at Work, etc Act 1974, The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992, and The Health and Safety (First Aid) Regulations 1981 (Pringle 201). The guidelines make it necessary for the care givers to seek the direct consent from the parents of guardians before administering any medicine to the sick child. This helps in avoiding the blame game, if the child does not respond well to the medication. On welfare requirement, workplaces consistently carry out audit of the safety equipment and make appropriate adjustments to the shortfalls that they detect. In women care centres; for example, they are obliged to observe all the legislation requirements about the employees’ safety. Such centres have done the significant work in ensuring that they meet the safety standards, which the government outlines for their operations. In doing so, they prevent the rate at which the women under their care sustain injuries in this environment (Asbury and Ashwell 121). 2.1 Identifying Potential Hazards In the work setting, it is very easy to identify potential health hazards, safety and security of women, young people, families, other visitors, and colleagues coming to that place. Some of the hazards include sharp objects, dirty toilets, unhygienic food preparation, infectious diseases, and metals that are rust. Others are flood, burglary, fire, bomb threat and abduction. These hazards should be identified early, so that immediate intervention is started to prevent their occurrence. 2.2 Dealing with the Hazards The workers must be committed to deal with the hazards in the workplace or in off-site visits, so that they could protect the women and young people from sustaining injuries. In dealing with hazards, women with communicable diseases should be kept away from others. There should be immediately given first aid and medical intervention to save the injured child from further infections. The environment must be kept very clean and hospitable. This measure is for preventing the occurrence of accidents and injuries in the work setting. In places where women play or stay, the application of hierarchy of control ensures that the workers are safeguarded from the risks and injuries, which are associated with the work environment (Perrone 146). 2.2.1 Eliminating Risks This is the most effective control measure in the work setting. The women, workers and management should collaborate to ensure that the risk are minimised and possibly eliminated. This would assure the women or other young people of total safety while staying in that place. 2.2.2 Engineering Controls Under this control, the protection of women from harmful exposures which probably occur in most settings is assured. It lays emphasis on the individual precaution on workplace risks to enable women grow up to be responsible people and become sensitive to their environment. 2.2.3 Administrative Controls The administration should minimise and regulate the exposure through eliminating unexpected damping of the harmful object in the compound where women stay. The practice ensures that there are limited exposures of the women to sharp objects, according to the regulations. 2.3 Health and Safety Risk Assessment In the own work setting, carrying out a health and safety risk assessment is useful if it is fully implemented. Essentially, it will reduce the occurrence or recurrence of the problems, depending on the control measures, which the implementing agency uses and the person who is likely to sustain the injury. Different hazards happen to various people, thus the risk level could be high, low or medium, depending on the exposure and the person involved. Women are more likely to sustain injuries in the workplace than the adults. 2.4 Monitoring and Reviewing Health and Safety Risk Assessment Through constant checks on the environmental cleanliness and adherence to the policies, the workers are able to monitor and review the health and safety risk assessment with a view to determine the best alternatives, which could be implemented to make the workplace friendly. The study revealed a lot regarding to the monitoring and reviewing health and safety risk assessment, potential occurrence or cases of flood, burglary, fire, bomb threat and abduction must be consistently checked. One of the problems that affected women was increased cases of abduction, especially when they were out of the care centre. In fact, many workers employed in the care centre over the years complained about increased abduction of women, a situation that affected their daily operations. 3.1 Balanced Approach to Risk Management In order to make sure that the workplace is hospitable, it is important to take a balanced approach to risk management, so that no disastrous loophole is left in the work setting. In this case, safety precautions have been paramount to make sure that the women and young people are safe. Moreover, concerning the ways in which the care centre controlled the hazards, one believes that the care centre has put adequate measures to control the risks that the women and young people may face in the work setting, in a balanced way. For example, they provide a range of protective equipment, such as gumboots that the vulnerable women need when visiting the toilets or playing in the compound. With specific reference to fire hazard, the work setting provides the fire extinguishers, which the employees and women are expected to use when the fire breaks in the work setting. The fire extinguishers were well spread in the place to cater for any emergency. Indeed, that was a balanced and adequate measure to minimise risks which result from the extreme fire outbreak. The workers further noted that it was an offence staying in the work-site without the protective devices, as this sent a wrong signal to women under their care. Moreover, the explanation showed that the care centre had a responsibility to cater for the fact that women, workers, and young people’s safety. Besides, workers observed a sense of the personal safety measures, by wearing the protective devices during the working hours that they could serve women. It was also observed that there were some leaflets pinned on the notice boards which outlined the safety precautions the young people and women had to observe. In addition, the care centre had the well-equipped first aid kit and the team of experts to cure the injured women and other young people (Schwirian 147). Therefore, it deduced that the work setting put in place adequate and balanced measures to minimise all the hazards, which the women and young people were likely to come across. 3.2 Rights and Choices Among the women and young people, there was the dilemma between their rights and choices regarding health and safety. Women have a right to play, yet they hardly consider the boundary that they are supposed to reach. In addition, their choices are made with little regard to the outcome or safety of the item that they handle. In this regard, caring for women and other young people needs thoroughness and close monitoring. This means that they should not be denied the opportunity to play, but the environment must be made conducive for them to ensure that they maximize its use. As a result, women and young people should wear all the safety equipment during the stay and play in the environment, and ensure that they seek the first aid for the injury sustained. In addition, they should be informed that safety is primarily for their personal benefit (Charlotte 63). 3.3 Practical Example In the matters related to practical support given to women and young people to assess and manage risks, the experience so far gained is that if the workers are supported, they can ensure the total safety of the women and other young people under their care. For example, a worker who is certain and believes that being safe - High level of personal safety, both physiological and physical , and a feeling of being protected by the system and emotional stability could do all within her or his power to make sure that women one protects do not suffer from any form of injury. The worker’s case is related to this situation, since it describes the need for the personal safety in the place of work. The workers under the personal safety thought that the workplace system would protect them, so that they would extend the protection to women (Walsh 97). Safety is a precondition to the workplace practices, where women play and stay. The reason is that it minimizes the injuries that women, workers and other youths sustain in the process of their duties and stay in particular environment respectively. 4.1 Policies and Procedures Since the workplace has several cases of accidents, incidents, injuries, emergencies and illnesses, there should be policies and procedures of the setting or service in response to the mentioned problems. The measures should aim at reducing or eliminating their occurrence in the work setting, because it will protect the women and young people from becoming victims of unsafe working environment. In case of abduction or threatened abduction of a child, one of the policies is to make sure that the staff must remain vigilant always and any of them should immediately report any person lingering on the nursery property. This means that the workers must take their responsibility very seriously to ensure that this policy is enforced. On the procedures, abduction cases or threats must be reported to the police immediately. The staff member who has spotted a suspicious character must notify the management. The parent(s) will be contacted; meanwhile other women will be kept safely. 4.2 Recording and Reporting Workplace Hazards In conclusuion, the correct procedures for reporting and recording accidents, injuries, incidents, signs of illnesses and other emergencies to a responsible authority. The person recording such hazards should understand the injuries, which different women are likely to suffer from. This could make their report very much reliable and meet the threshold of the required standards. First, it must be conducted in an accurate and transparent way. Secondly, the work place has to provide safety guidelines for the effective reporting and recording of the hazards and what women are expected to do, in case of an injury, sickness in the work setting and fire outbreak. Works cited Asbury, Stephen and Ashwell, Peter. Health and Safety, Environment and Quality Audits. Boston, Routledge, 2012. Print. Charlotte, Borst. Catching Babies: Professionalization of Childbirth. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995. Print. Markward, Martha and Yegidis, Bonnie. Evidence Based Paractice with women: Toward effective social work. Massachusetts: Massachusetts department of Health, 1996 More, Ellen. Restoring the Balance: Women Physicians and the Profession of Medicine.London: Harvard University Press, 1995. Print. Perrone, Bobette. et al. Medicine Women, Curanderas, and Women Doctors. Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1993. Print. Pringle, Rosemary. Sex and Medicine: Gender, Power and Authority in the Medical Profession. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Print. Schwirian, Patricia. Professionalization of Nursing: Current Issues and Trends. Philadelphia: Lippencott,1998. Print. Walsh, Mary. Doctors Wanted: No Women Need Apply: Sexual Barriers in the Medical Profession. New York, NY: Routlege Publishers, 1997. Print. Read More