Answer

Health Workplace

In the article titled, The key to safety: A healthy workplace, Stephanie Davis (2018) provides an insight on the issue of workplace safety within the context of healthcare. Davis (2018) discusses potential implication of occupational hazards such as infection transmission, surgical smoke, slips and falls, and moving and lifting. Besides, the author provides some intervention measures that can be used to mitigate the impacts of the above mentioned workplace hazards. Intervention measures are discusses below. A safer workplace can be beneficial to healthcare providers, and the benefits can trickle down to patients, and families.

            Certain factors may impact organizational culture in a positive as well as in a negative manner. One of the factors with a positive impact is patient and healthcare professionals’ awareness and education about obvious hazards in the healthcare setting. This can help promote the culture of caution and develop prevention strategies. Other factors that can have positive impact on the culture of an organization include use of constant reminders, hand washing and hand hygiene practices, use of personal protective equipment, finding solutions for hazards as soon as they are identified, and use of assistive devices such as lighting devices. On the other hand, factors that may have negative impact on the culture of an organization include shortage of nurses, occupational hazards, lack of appropriate knowledge, and lifting patients without assistive devices (Davis, 2018).

            Self-care can have several positive impacts in the workplace. Self-care practices ensure that potentially infectious or hazardous materials are handled with caution. In this manner, healthcare professionals protect the self as well as others. In addition, self-care promotes awareness and quick identification of occupational hazards or potential sources of harm in the workplace so as to improve policy or safety guidelines. Besides, self-care helps avoid out-of-work times due to workplace-associated illnesses given the fact that some hospitals experience staff shortages (Davis, 2018).

            Workplace health can have direct and indirect impacts on the culture of an organization. Direct impacts include safety of the healthcare staff. The risk of occupational risks such as infections, injuries, and perhaps death of the healthcare staff will be reduced if workplace safety and health is achieved. Indirect impacts include improved quality and safety of care offered to healthcare consumers once safety and wellbeing of the staff is achieved. Other indirect effect is that the healthcare organization will deliver better healthcare outcomes such as improved patient safety, quality of care, and satisfaction of care (Davis, 2018).

            Some findings in the Davis’ (2018) article supports establishment of a healthy workplace. It includes establishment of safety protocols, performance of workplace safety audits, recording data of accidents/incidences, awareness of risks, use of assistive devices to lift patients, proper hand hygiene, use of personal safety devices, and proper handling of sharps (Davis, 2018). Davis (2018) has also identified the need for further research on the impacts of surgical smoke and its mitigation measures. Safety reminders, such as those reminding patients and staff about slippery floors are also important in development of a healthy workplace (Davis, 2018).

            Several methods can be used for improving workplace safety. According to Boynton (2015), utilization of effective communication skills and strategies can help in promote workplace safety through improved communication between healthcare providers and patients, families, and colleagues. Besides, effective communication can help guarantee ethical practice and safety in nursing practice (Boynton, 2015). Assistive devices should be made available for the healthcare staff. On the other hand, health staff should be provided with appropriate healthy workplace knowledge and encouraged to adhere faithfully to established safety protocols (Davis, 2018).