Keeping Patients Safe


Book Description

Building on the revolutionary Institute of Medicine reports To Err is Human and Crossing the Quality Chasm, Keeping Patients Safe lays out guidelines for improving patient safety by changing nurses' working conditions and demands. Licensed nurses and unlicensed nursing assistants are critical participants in our national effort to protect patients from health care errors. The nature of the activities nurses typically perform â€" monitoring patients, educating home caretakers, performing treatments, and rescuing patients who are in crisis â€" provides an indispensable resource in detecting and remedying error-producing defects in the U.S. health care system. During the past two decades, substantial changes have been made in the organization and delivery of health care â€" and consequently in the job description and work environment of nurses. As patients are increasingly cared for as outpatients, nurses in hospitals and nursing homes deal with greater severity of illness. Problems in management practices, employee deployment, work and workspace design, and the basic safety culture of health care organizations place patients at further risk. This newest edition in the groundbreaking Institute of Medicine Quality Chasm series discusses the key aspects of the work environment for nurses and reviews the potential improvements in working conditions that are likely to have an impact on patient safety.




Workplace Safety


Book Description

Workplace Safety: A Guide For Small & Mid-Sized Companies, by Dan Hopwood and Steve Thompson, uses a straight-forward approach to creating the basic elements of a successful safety program. This book will provide updated information and real world examples illustrating how to prevent as well as confront the common health and safety issues that arise in the workplace. It includes information on core OSHA regulatory requirements, safety needs assessment, workers' compensation and insurance, disaster and emergency planning, ergonomics, risk management and loss prevention, injury management, incident investigation, workplace security, best practices, and workplace safety culture formation.




Safe Work in the 21st Century


Book Description

Despite many advances, 20 American workers die each day as a result of occupational injuries. And occupational safety and health (OSH) is becoming even more complex as workers move away from the long-term, fixed-site, employer relationship. This book looks at worker safety in the changing workplace and the challenge of ensuring a supply of top-notch OSH professionals. Recommendations are addressed to federal and state agencies, OSH organizations, educational institutions, employers, unions, and other stakeholders. The committee reviews trends in workforce demographics, the nature of work in the information age, globalization of work, and the revolution in health care deliveryâ€"exploring the implications for OSH education and training in the decade ahead. The core professions of OSH (occupational safety, industrial hygiene, and occupational medicine and nursing) and key related roles (employee assistance professional, ergonomist, and occupational health psychologist) are profiled-how many people are in the field, where they work, and what they do. The book reviews in detail the education, training, and education grants available to OSH professionals from public and private sources.




From Accidents to Zero


Book Description

As leaders increasingly understand the importance of good safety practice to support their business objectives, safety and health practitioners develop better tools and solutions. However, there is still a gulf between these two groups where engagement, communication and shared understanding can be found lacking. From Accidents to Zero opens up the field of safety culture and breaks it down into bite-sized pieces to facilitate new, critical thought and inspire practical action. Based on the concept of creating safety, as opposed to just preventing accidents, each of the 26 chapters in this user-friendly book includes explanation, commentary, reflections and practical activities designed to systematically and sustainably improve workplace safety culture. Core topics range from behaviour to values, daily rituals to unsafe acts, felt leadership to trust. Andrew Sharman's practical guide blends current academic thinking with authoritative guidance and sets up the opportunity for all parts of the organization to close the gap by providing very clear steps to thinking and acting differently. It sparks insight into how both traditional methods and novel approaches can be brought to life in real world situations. From Accidents to Zero offers a clear route to culture change through over one hundred pragmatic ideas to motivate and lead people, influence behaviour and drive a positive evolution in workplace safety.




Improving Workplace Safety


Book Description




Fatigue Management


Book Description

In this soon-to-be gold-standard text, a distinguished panel of experts provides a comprehensive discussion of the various medical, neurological, psychiatric, and psychological factors underlying fatigue and sleepiness in the workplace and in patients. In reviewing current best practices in managing fatigue and sleepiness conditions to improve workplace safety, the book importantly begins with an overview of fatigue’s definitions and concepts. It then moves into discussing the historical perspective on sleepiness and fatigue, the definitions and classifications of fatigue, and assessments of fatigue in the laboratory and in clinical settings. The book continues by exploring medical causes of fatigue in detail; how medication and recreational agents may result in fatigue; and the treatment of sleep disorders. Additional topics include best practices in the treatment of narcolepsy and hypersomnia, a review of circadian rhythm and fatigue, the treatment of heart failure and improvement in fatigue, and the management of fatigue in hospitalized patients. A major contribution to the field, this invaluable title will be of significant interest to all clinicians concerned with safeguarding safety in the workplace by accurately diagnosing and managing patients with fatigue and sleepiness problems. Researchers will also find this title of great interest.




Workplace Safety and Health


Book Description

Are the tried and true safety practices still effective in the changing workplace? Is there a better way of safeguarding employees from accidents and injuries? In short, why do you perform the safety activities that you do on a daily basis and do they produce the results necessary to keep your safety program and your company competitive in the global market? Answering these questions and more, Workplace Safety and Health: Assessing Current Practices and Promoting Change in the Profession analyzes the current practices and identifies emerging issues and challenges in the safety and health profession. We Need a Game Changer ... A New Way of Achieving a Safe and Healthful Workplace Safety pioneer and educator Thomas Schneid makes a strong case that mandatory compliance with OSHA regulations is only the first step in a safety program. And that, due to globalization and the current emphasis on sustainability, the requirements of the safety profession have changed. He explores new sources of information and guidance for addressing the new and emerging issues created by the current economic situation, globalization, and the changing workplace. He also identifies and analyzes emerging ethical issues within the safety and health profession, then suggests potential solutions. Schneid then examines the basic assumptions and challenges you to assess and evaluate your activities in search of a better and more effective way of achieving the results necessary to be competitive in today’s workplace. Taking a provocative look at the current issues facing the safety profession, he shows you how to view safety activities and actions from a different perspective and see the real impact they have on the lives of others. He gives you the tools you need to go beyond OSHA compliance and develop safety programs that will be effective in the global workplace and create and maintain a safe workplace that eliminates all injuries and illnesses.




Tuberculosis in the Workplace


Book Description

Before effective treatments were introduced in the 1950s, tuberculosis was a leading cause of death and disability in the United States. Health care workers were at particular risk. Although the occupational risk of tuberculosis has been declining in recent years, this new book from the Institute of Medicine concludes that vigilance in tuberculosis control is still needed in workplaces and communities. Tuberculosis in the Workplace reviews evidence about the effectiveness of control measuresâ€"such as those recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Preventionâ€"intended to prevent transmission of tuberculosis in health care and other workplaces. It discusses whether proposed regulations from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration would likely increase or sustain compliance with effective control measures and would allow adequate flexibility to adapt measures to the degree of risk facing workers.




Peoplework: The Human Touch in Workplace Safety


Book Description

Workplace safety is failing. Despite better procedures now in place on the job, people are still getting hurt. The problem lies in our thinking. We must shift the focus from rules to relationships. In PeopleWork, author and safety management consultant Kevin Burns presents his M4 Method of people-centered management for safety in the workplace. He lays out the practical, how-to steps that frontline supervisors and safety people can master. This promotes a relationship-based culture focused on mentoring, coaching, and inspiring teams. It's an approach that ultimately improves employee productivity and allows everyone to achieve their personal goals and the goals of their company. With PeopleWork, you can raise workplace safety to a level where it actually works.




Introduction To Workplace Safety And Health Management: A Systems Thinking Approach (Second Edition)


Book Description

This book takes a systems-thinking approach to allow readers to understand how Workplace safety and health (WSH) is an integral part of any organisation. The different chapters are strung together by an overarching model of incident causation, and underpinning models are presented to allow a strong conceptual foundation. Practical WSH knowledge also discussed in relevant chapters to ensure that beginners have an introduction to the fundamentals of WSH hazards and controls.The second edition presents additional systems thinking concepts and archetypes not covered previously, the safe design process in Australia, thoughts on learning disabilities and safety culture, and additional case studies. Besides the strong emphasis on conceptual framework, readers will also be exposed to the details of a WSH management system and practical WSH processes, hazards and controls. A series of online quizzes are available to readers to help them to reinforce the concepts of each chapter.Undergraduates and post-graduates will benefit from the systematic introduction to the foundations of WSH management. Practitioners will strengthen their conceptual understanding and widen their perspective by re-visiting the foundations of WSH management through a systems-thinking lens.