Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Hazard Management Plan for Sidney Community Hospital †Free Samples

Question: Discuss about the Hazard Management Plan for Sidney Community Hospital. Answer: Introduction Sidney Community Hospital is one of the established healthcare facilities in the country. Since its establishment, the facility has been playing a pivotal role in the delivery of healthcare services to the public. Initially, the hospital was specialized in the provision of essential healthcare services like Primary Health Care, pediatric, and cardiovascular care. However, as time went by, the hospital managed to expand its services. Today, it deals in other specialized care including cancer services, obstetric, renal, surgical, trauma, and general acute medical services. As an established organization, Sidney Community Hospital is a great employer. It has been employing a large number of people who are directly and indirectly involved in the provision of healthcare services to its clientele. These include the physicians, nurses, pharmacists, informatics, surgeons, midwives, pediatricians, administrators, mangers, and support services staff. The hospital has some hazards which have be en causing problems to the employees and other stakeholders within the workplace. Smoking as an Occupational Health and Safety Issue at the Hospital The management of Sidney Community Hospital has been commended to be responsible in the execution of its responsibilities. The hospital has been having a strong and well-organized Human Resources Department which has been playing a significant role in the management of the organizations human resources. The professional manner in which the employees have been handled has made the hospital to motivate the workers to continue serving the organization. As an employer, Sidney Hospital has been doing everything within its capacity to enhance the quality of its services (Pierson, 2012). Nevertheless, despite this, the hospital has not managed to completely eradicate certain hazards which are associated with the workplace. One of the areas which the management has totally failed to eradicate is the practice of smoking. A recent survey conducted at the hospital revealed that the hospital has a large number of employees and clients who are engaged in smoking. This has made smoking to be a maj or challenge in the hospital. The smokers have developed a tendency of engaging in practice while in the hospital despite knowing that it is a harmful activity that should not be done in public places such as healthcare facilities. In fact, two out of ten employees are engaging in smoking while at the workplace. This means that smoking has become a major issue of concern because it affects nearly all the employees and clients to which it is exposed. Smoking is one of the risky behaviors which should be avoided because it causes lots of problems to the people (Chen Wang, 2014). The practice of smoking at the hospital should therefore be considered as an environmental hazard which affects the males, females, adults, children, and the elderly persons to whom it is exposed. Research has proven that smoking can affect nearly all the body organs. Smoking is a hazard that has been making it challenging to work at the hospital. To smokers, smoking is a prestigious activity that should not be stopped once it is started. It is an addictive behavior which becomes difficult to stop. However, although it has been associated with pleasure and other perceived benefits, smoking is a very dangerous practice that should be avoided at all costs. When people engage in smoking in the workplace, they not only affect themselves. Instead, they extend the harmful effects of other people who get it through second-hand smoking. The nicotine substance in the cigarettes can cause a wide range of diseases such as asthma, stomach cancer, cancer of the throat, cancer of the larynx, cancer of the mouth, lung cancer, and cancer of the pancreas, breast cancer, chronic bronchitis, low birth weight, emphysema, heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, blindness, gum infections, and stroke. The risks can be accessed through survey. Surveys are conducted by interviewing the employees, management and clients. Current Hazard Management Strategies for Sidney Community Hospital Although smoking is still practiced in the hospital, the management of Sidney Community Hospital has been concerned about. The management has been considering smoking as an occupational and health safety issue that should not be ignored. However, it has not been considered as a priority area in comparison to other safety hazards like chemical, biological, and physical hazards which cause severe injuries, and fatalities in the workplace. The recognition given to smoking has made the management to come up with certain measures to manage it and possibly prevent it from being practiced because it interferes with the environment in which the employees and clients operate. The first strategy that has been applied in the management of smoking in the workplace is the development of organizational internal policies which mainly address the protection of the environment. In its clean environment policy, the management has clearly outlined that smoking is a hazardous activity that has a potential of causing diseases, and even death to the smokers and non-smokers as well. The employees and clients are therefore supposed to observe certain regulations when they want to smoke. The most important thing to do is to consider smoking as a harmful activity that should not be done in the public. Hospital is a public facility that is used by many people (Butler Wilson, 2015). Therefore, the management has been appealing to the smokers not to smoke in the hospital because it can cause the problem to all the hospital users especially the highly-susceptible non-smokers who can be affected from the practice due to second-hand smoking. Apart from applying its internal policies in the management of smoking hazards, the management of Sidney Community Hospital has been trying to enforce the smoking legislations and occupational safety and health regulations governing the use of cigarettes in the workplace. Over the years, the commonwealth government of Australia and territory governments has been enacting legislations which govern the use of cigarettes in the workplace and other public spaces (Frederickson Ghere, 2013). Such laws have been imposing certain bans which have been lauded for regulating smoking and making the environment to be a safe place for human beings especially the innocent non-smokers who should not be exposed to smoking-related hazards. The application of these legislations has also helped the organization to regulate the use of cigarettes in the workplace (Huarng Ribeiro-Soriano, 2014). They have made smokers to refrain from the activity because it is harmful and can hazardous in the workplace. A healthcare facility should have an environment which is conducive for all the users because it can facilitate the recovery process (McFarlin Sweeney, 2014). This notwithstanding, the management of Sidney Community Hospital has been engaging in the training of its employees and clients. The department of Public Relations has been collaborating with the HRM to design a training program for all the stakeholders especially the employees who are engaging or planning to engage in smoking activities while at the workplace. The training has been revolving around important areas like the causes, addiction, dangers, and quitting strategies for smoking (McClellan, et al., 2014). The training program has been effective in the management of smoking activities because it creates awareness to the employees on what to do while at the workplace. Information is a very powerful tool that should be applied in the workplace (Dubey Singhal, 2016). When people are knowledgeable, they can make informed decisions which are aimed at making positive changes in the organization. It is for this reason why the manageme3nt has been insisting on periodical training pr ograms (Zwietering, Ross Gorris, 2014). It is the best strategy to elicit the required behavior change in the employees. Hazard Management Plan for Sidney Community Hospital Smoking still remains a major issue of concern in the workplace because the management strategies so far applied in the organization have not been effective in addressing it. The strategies should be changed and improved so as to make them effective and efficient in providing an ultimate solution to the persistent problem of smoking at the workplace. Smoking is a hazard that should be ultimately eradicated from the workplace because its continuity will further cause a negative impact on the hospital (Hill, Jones Schilling, 2014). The management should show a lot of concern because smoking is a hazard which should be treated as a priority area in the workplace (Purce, 2014). Anything which contaminates the environment should not be entertained because it is the environment which is relied upon to facilitate the recovery process for the patients. It is therefore recommended that the management should take the following measures: To begin with, the management of Sidney Community Hospital should institute an Occupational Safety Health Department to exclusively deal with occupational safety and health-related matters in the workplace (De Young, et al., 2014). The analysis conducted shows that workplace safety issues have been manned by the HR and Public Relations departments. However, this is not effective because these departments do not have well-trained professionals to properly manage workplace hazards. The suggestion should therefore be considered for adoption because it can help in addressing all the hazards which are experienced in the workplace (Killen, Jugdev, Drouin Petit, 2012). Through this department, the management can manage to get the required manpower which can be relied upon to address all the smoking-related hazards which have been troubling the organization (Ward Peppard, 2016). Occupational safety experts can conduct research to find out the best strategies that can be applied to help in the management of the hazardous practice. The success in the eradication of smoking hazards is only dependent on the seriousness of the management. If the management is concerned about it, the practice will be ultimately eradicated because the employees who practice it will have to be encouraged and empowered to stop it (Baden Higgs, 2015). In addition, the management of Sidney Community Hospital can fully-eradicate the practice of smoking by improving on its training and educational programs. The fact that the practice is still going on implies that the strategies applied have not been effective. The training programs which have been in use have not been properly done (Tweedie Holley, 2016). Therefore, it should be upon the management to redesign its training strategies by making different changes. For example, the content of the training programs should be changed to include the dangers of smoking and second-hand smoking in the workplace (Dubey Singhal, 2016). At the same time, employees should be encouraged to retrain from smoking no matter how they are because it has no benefit at all. if this is properly done, smoking will be eradicated because the employees will be convinced to stop the practice because it negatively impact on them, their colleagues, patients, carers, and the organization at large. However, for training to be successful, it should be provided during orientation and periodically (Kim, Lee, Chun Benbasat, 2014). Sometimes, the management should seek for the services of consultants and external resource persons to train its workforce on smoking and its related hazards. Finally, the management of Sidney Community Hospital should consider changing its internal policies to make them effective in addressing the problem of smoking in the workplace (Shih, Young Bucher, 2013). As it is today, the organization has got certain policies which are not effective in addressing the hazard. The policies formulated have been seeking to address the issue of smoking in the workplace. The rules do not prohibit, but merely discourages the practice. Meaning, employees can engage in smoking in the workplace as long as it is done by following certain procedures such as doing it in the designated smoking zones within the hospital. These regulations have not been effectively enforced because there is no monitoring at all. The people who violate these regulations are not punished therefore encouraging them to continue floating the rules. Therefore, to deal with the menace, the management should change its policies and introduce new rules to govern the smoking in the workpl ace (Chhokar, Brodbeck House, 2013). Once the rules are introduced, they should be stringently enforced by closely monitoring the smokers, and severely punishing the violators. The outcome of this plan is that there will be a reduction in the hazard in the workplace (Nummer, et al., 2015). No employee or client will suffer from the hazard anymore because there will be a change in behavior. Conclusion Occupational safety and health issues should always be taken seriously in every workplace. The management should be at the fore front of creating a safe environment for all the stakeholders because it is necessary for the delivery of satisfactory services. Smoking has been fronted as one of the major issues of concern in many organizations such as Sidney Community Hospital. The practice of smoking should be considered as a hazard which can cause a wide range of illnesses both to the smokers and non-smokers who get affected through second-hand smoking. However, it is an unnecessary habit which can be ultimately addressed if appropriate measures are taken. Despite coming up with noble anti-smoking policies, the organization has not managed to completely eradicate the smoking hazard from its premises. A large number of employees and clients are still engaging in smoking within the hospital. To ultimately address the hazard, the management should re-energize its occupational safety and h ealth measures by redesigning its policies to make them more effective than they currently are. This will instill order in the workplace and make the hospital to be a smoking-free organization which is safe for everyone including the employees, patients, and the general public. References Baden, D., Higgs, M. (2015). Challenging the perceived wisdom of management theories and practice. Academy of Management Learning Education, 14(4), 539-555. Butler, R., Wilson, D. C. (2015). Managing voluntary and non-profit organizations: Strategy and structure. London: Routledge. Chen, R. Wang, H.M. (2014). Research on organization structure and operation efficiency of extreme floods emergency management under bureaucracy-cooperation system: Taking Huaihe River Basin as a case. 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