COVER STORY


report their own health concerns, to receive hepatitis vaccinations or the protocols in place to protect staff from infectious conditions.


Likewise, if your staff induction covers general employment arrangements, why not include the main health and safety requirements too? These may include:


• Staff responsibilities (integrate safety duties with general care procedures)


• Fire procedure (to cover staff as well as resident safety)


• Serving of food or helping residents during meals (including basic food hygiene)


Resident Admissions Admission into a care home can bring up many emotions for the resident and their family. The fi rst day is often taken up with practical matters to ensure the resident’s physical and medicinal needs are met, but at what stage are the safety and wellbeing of the staff that are going to care for the resident assessed? It should be at this very fi rst step, in conjunction with assessment of the resident’s needs, so there is a joined up approach that achieves the best outcomes for both parties.


It’s helpful to differentiate staff and resident safety controls within the admission documents. This can be done by either using a different font for staff safety, highlighting the text or even colour coding resident, staff and other residents’ safety considerations. Using a standardised format on all documentation will enable consistency in approach and help everyone to understand the connection between risk management of the resident, the staff and others in the home.


Link Care Plans With


Risk Assessments This is probably where care providers can obtain the most value by integrating their systems. We have lost count over the years of


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the different templates used for assessments. What we don’t often see in these templates, though, is a connection between Resident Care Plans and worker health and safety.


By including workplace risks and controls of staff in the Resident Care Plan, it is quicker and


easier for staff to be reminded of measures for themselves, as well as for the person to whom the Plan relates, and others within the care environment. All that is often needed is a separate column or line identifying safety considerations or controls for the carer.


For example, the Care Plan often includes protocols for moving and handling a resident – why not expand this to consider walkways and trip hazards, safety measures when the client goes out, emergency evacuation arrangements, etc? All these interlink with moving and handling a resident in some form; complete one assessment, rather than several (see *Table 1 for an example).


Training Training of staff is a signifi cant resource for a busy care home, especially where carers are on call 24/7. Frequent and brief practical training sessions are more effective than a longer course, as people can only absorb so much information at any one time. Why not include a simple safety tip in each of the sessions you run? For example, if a staff member attends computer training include fi ve minutes on good ergonomics and posture, or include a brief session on COSHH when delivering medication training (medications can be hazardous to health if they are not prescribed for you). Another example may be to incorporate some basic self-defence techniques when training staff in management of aggression.


Indeed, fi nding time for staff, particularly managers and supervisors, to attend training is one of the biggest challenges we


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Public courses


available to book now: Kent:


27th and 28th November Cambridgeshire:


2nd and 3rd December Leicestershire:


10th and 11th December In-house courses also arranged.


experience. Managers recognise that they and their colleagues need training but don’t have the resources to provide suffi cient cover so they can attend a lengthy course.


To address this we designed our own bespoke healthcare safety management course and it has now been accredited by IOSH (Institution of Occupational Safety and Health). This is the leading safety institution in the UK and is recognised by CQC and HSE. It enables a recognised benchmark of competence to be achieved in only two days, and every topic is tailored specifi cally to the care environment. Practical case studies to help learning through problem solving have been developed for specialist areas of care, e.g. dementia, residential, and learning diffi culties. So the learning content is not only accredited, but also targeted, and always relevant. This course is being delivered in- house and also via public courses throughout the UK.


For more information, please contact Nicola Coote at Personnel Health & Safety Consultants Ltd on 01622 717700 or by email at Nicola.coote@phsc.co.uk.


www.phsc.co.uk


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