Health and safety for temporary staff

General Safety
You have a responsibility for your own health and safety, and that of patients, visitors and others who may be affected by your acts or omissions.

You should only act in accordance with your own professional status and never use, handle or do anything that you have not been adequately informed, instructed or trained to do.

There is a Departmental Safety Co-ordinator in your area; identify who they are and ask them for any further information you need

Manual Handling
Where appropriate, patients have an individual patient assessment attached to their care plan, indicating safe handling techniques and equipment to be used.

You should ensure that you are aware of the manual handling aids that are available in the Department/ward.

Accidents/Incidents
All accidents and safety incidents to you, patients or others, no matter how trivial, must be reported to a supervisor/manager immediately and an accident form completed within 24 hours.

Accident/incident forms are available in the ward/department.

Sharps
Needles must not be resheathed. All sharps must be disposed of in a sharps bin. All needlestick and other sharps injuries must be reported as above.

Staff sustaining a sharps injury must attend Occupational Health in the first instance during normal working hours [Monday-Friday 0900-17.00] or the nearest accident and emergency department out of hours.

Control Of Infection
Appropriate practices in accordance with infection control policies must be adhered to. As a minimum good universal practices should be adopted. Clinical waste must be disposed of in appropriate yellow bags/bins.

A copy of the Infection Control Policy is available in patient care areas.

Chemicals
Hazardous chemicals must be used in accordance with safe procedures, instruction or training and stored securely when not in use.

Ensure that you have read and understood any relevant assessments under the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health [COSHH].

Risk Assessments
Risk assessments have been carried out for other hazards and risks in all areas. Ensure that you read and understand any assessments for the areas in which you are working.

If you become aware of any hazard that has not been addressed please bring this to the attention of the local manager.

Fire

If you discover or accidentally start a fire:

break glass in nearest break-glass unit, usually located near the exits
phone the site emergency number and; advise of location of fire and what is on fire
follow instructions from senior staff
if you are happy to do so, use extinguishers to put out the fire, but do not put yourself at risk
Keep fire exits and fire equipment clear and unobstructed.
Identify the escape routes and places of assembly.

Office Work
Office workstations have been ergonomically arranged for the regular staff member. Whilst it is accepted that a degree of minor adjustment may be necessary to suit, say, a left handed worker, you must not substantially rearrange a workstation unless by prior approval of the Manager.

Longer term temporary staff should have their workstation assessed in the same way as Trust employed staff. Discuss this with the Manager.

Smoking at Work
The Trust operates a no-smoking policy which expects its temporary staff to adhere to. The Trust does however acknowledge that smoking at work in inevitable and has established designated areas where smoking is tolerated. Ask you Safety Co-ordinator or Manager where these are.

Violent or Aggressive Behaviour
In a mental health environment, staff are likely to come across unpredictable behaviour from patients and visitors. The following are some suggestions which may be useful:

Prevention:

Listen to requests, and don’t ignore people.
Don’t make promises you can’t or don’t intend to keep
Don’t patronise people
Try to negotiate a way forward from both parties point of view
Look for creative solutions, aim for a win/win situation
Try and remain relaxed and calm
Offer help from others either now or later
Intervene as early as possible

De-escalation:

Explain who you are if you aren’t known to the person
Involve staff who have a good relationship with the person
Encourage two way talking and avoid jargon
Allow personal space
Avoid over reaction or an aggressive response
Use emergency response team to call for help. Shout in emergency
Run/move away if you feel immediate danger
Take a step backward to avoid a body blow.