Safety of Employees and Patients at Workplace
Safety is a critical need for any given workstation, and healthcare settings require much of it since they deal with the lives of both patients and the medical practitioners. Therefore, it is up to the employers to ensure that the workplace is safe and secure. To achieve this safety at the workplace, the employees also have a role to play in making sure that their safety and that of their colleagues. In this handout, the rules, and guidelines to be followed to achieve safety are described exhaustively.
Responsibilities of Employee
To ensure the rights are observed to, the employees also have some roles to play. Employees in the hospital should ensure their health and safety is well covered. They should avoid wearing loose clothing or jewelry while working with machines such as the machine for cancer treatment. The employees are supposed to have short hair, or in case they have long hair or are wearing a headscarf, they should not be left hanging to avoid being caught in machines or interfere while attending to the patients undergoing operations in the theater. It is up to the employees to ensure they are in line with the policies given by the employer through training and adherence to the safety and health policies provided. The employer provides the safety equipment, but it is the role of the employees to use them properly and ensure their maintenance. The employees should be the one who takes the initiative of informing their employer whenever they are in situations that make them unable to work, for instance, pregnancy and when injured; similarly for those who operate machines, they need to inform the employer when they are in conditions that cannot allow them to operate normal, such as when on medication that is making one drowsy (Vincent, 2011).
The employees are supposed to form an organization that will elect an employee safety representative. It is the responsibility of the employees to let the representative know about any safety and health concerns of the employees. The representative is constantly consulted by the employer to find out about any safety issues and initiate necessary actions plan. The risks at the workplace sometimes are caused by the failure on the part of the employee. For instance, employees who report to work under the influence of drugs and alcohol put the entire institution under risk. Therefore, in line with this, the employer has the responsibility of ensuring safety and health of all employees is taken care of using any means. The duty pushes the employer to initiate the drug testing policies that are aimed at outlining what is expected of the employees as far as drugs are concerned. In as much as drug testing is for the employees’ welfare, it has to happen after consent of the employees.
The drug testing policies alongside the search policies should be treated as a matter that is delicate and needs the agreement between the employer and the employee. The testing should …
