Employee Safety in Nursing - Term Paper Example

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Suggestions are made for resolving the problem, or at least for controlling the further expansion of the problem. The barriers and the obstacles that the suggested measures are expected to face are also presented. It is concluded that employee safety in nursing may be difficult to be appropriately promoted; the nature of the particular profession, being related to health, seems that hides the potential risks for the sector’s employees. Also, the supportive role of nurses can be considered as opposed to dynamic contests, even for claiming rights, which are recognized by the law. The fact that nurses are at a rather low position in the organizational hierarchy is another factor preventing individuals working in the specific position to ask for the protection of their rights. The legislative texts and practices used in the US for ensuring the safety of nurses are mentioned to show, at least indicatively, the progress made in the particular field and to explain the conditions in which such measures are likely to be developed – since suggestions are made for the increase of safety of nurses in healthcare units of various size.

Employee safety is a complex concept; in nursing, the challenges faced by regulators trying to control the problem are many – mostly because of the continuous exposure of nurses to patients with various psychological problems, a fact that increases the chances for a violent event against nurses in the workplace. On the other hand, the volume of work in the specific sector is usually high; the needs and the rights of employees are often ignored due to the lack of time availability; the health problems of patients are set as a priority, an approach which can be accepted but up to a level. Employees in the healthcare sector have equal rights to health and safety, as also the patients. The nature of their work should not be used as an excuse for ignoring the law focusing on the health and safety of employees in the particular sector. The problem is higher for nurses; their direct involvement in the treatment of many diseases daily makes their profession extremely risky – referring to the exposure of nurses to infections of various types due to the lack of adequate safety measures. On the other hand, due to the continuous development of technology, the complexity and the volume of services in the healthcare sector have been increased. The health risks for nurses have been significantly increased, a fact that proves the inability of the state to develop effective rules for ensuring health and safety in nursing. It should be noted that the causes of the problem can be identified not only in the advances in technology in the health care sector but also in the increase in the number of cases handled daily. As the number of people having access to healthcare services is increasing, so do the risks for nurses. The continuous increase of immigrants, who are exposed to many infections due to their living conditions, is another factor threatening the health of nurses. At the same time, the training of nurses on health and safety is not always appropriate; under the pressure of time – for covering emergent needs in healthcare units across the country – the information provided to nurses regarding their health and safety is usually limited leading to their exposure to severe health and safety problems.

Reference should be also made to the following fact: the management of healthcare units is usually problematic. The need for covering operational costs is usually set as a priority; administrative issues of significant importance, like the health and safety of employees, are often ignored. Moreover, the position of nurses within each healthcare organization is rather of limited power – meaning the power to press for the respect of nurses’ rights. Because of the high competition in the job market, nurses are often likely to avoid fighting for their rights, even if their life is in danger due to severe organizational failures. Of course, this is a problem common for various industrial and scientific sectors; however, in the healthcare sector, the problem seems to be clearer, maybe because life is proven to have two different values: when coming to patients, health risks are considered as of critical importance – being the key priority for the administrators of every healthcare unit. However, when the health of nurses is set under discussion, then a different hierarchy of values often appears; safety is of primary value but only regarding customers, not employees.

Employers in the healthcare sector, meaning the state or individuals, have to face a series of challenges: they have to prioritize the needs and the rights of stakeholders in a way that conflicts are avoided. The particular sector is differentiated from other sectors at the following point: the interests of part of the stakeholders may be directly opposed to the interests and the needs of another group of stakeholders. The specific problem is made clear by referring to the following example: in an emergent event, for instance, an accident, nurses may be asked to intervene while the safety issues involved are many. Nurses should normally deny participating; however, most commonly, nurses are likely to ignore the safety risks of a particular case and are likely to be involved even if this initiative would threaten their health. Because of the above fact, the responsibility of administrators of health care units for ensuring the health and safety of nurses is increased. ...Download file to see next pages Read More