Workplaces present different hazards: physical, biological, chemical, ergonomic, or safety hazards. Minimising these hazards will not only reduce accidents but will improve the overall work quality of your relieved employees. Equipping your environment with the right work safety gear is an all-important step towards this goal. Find out more about how to minimise risk and be prepared for unfortunate medical emergencies at the workplace.
Hazard Management:
If you are a person in charge of an undertaking or a business, you are legally obliged to manage the hazards at your workplace by the Government of NSW. Ensure that you take the following steps to minimise risks:
- Check if you can eliminate the hazard.
- If you can’t do so, make changes so that a less severe risk entirely or partially replaces the hazard.
- If you can cordon off the hazardous area, do so with visible barriers and signs.
- If your workplace involves heavy machinery, ensure there are kill switches and manual overrides at critical junctures.
- In addition to, or in place of the above, you must implement appropriate safety protocols.
- You must also provide your employees with all the necessary work safety gearsuch as earplugs, goggles, and high-visibility vests.
Stock up on suitable first-aid kits:
First aid kits can save lives – be it at your home or the workplace. Ensure that the kit is in a location accessible to all, and make sure all employees are aware of it. A well-stocked first-aid kit must contain the following essential items, as suggested by the Red Cross.
- Absorbent compress dressings
- Adhesive bandages
- One roll of adhesive cloth tape
- Antibiotic ointment
- Antiseptic Alcohol wipes
- Aspirin
- Breathing barriers
- Latex gloves
- Hydrocortisone ointment
- Gauze roll
- Sterile gauze pads
- Oral thermometer
- Emergency blanket
- Triangular bandages
If you work outdoors on most occasions, your first aid kit can also include a snake and spider identification sheet. Some top medical kit providers even provide illustrated instruction manuals with the necessary medicines for burns, outdoor accidents, and wounds. If you intend to buy a pre-assembled kit, ensure it complies with the WHS2019 Regulations for Workplaces. Visit Primo Dental Products to get your medical equipment such as gloves and face masks.
Train some of your employees to perform CPR:
Additionally, it helps if your employees are knowledgeable about standard medical procedures, such as CPR. Top suppliers of workplace safety gear also provide medical first-aid kits with CPR instructions. CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation) is administered when a person suffers from an independent cardiac arrest. Such a person has 4 minutes before they go brain dead if CPR is not performed. A person may need CPR if he has experienced a sudden cardiac arrest, if he is choking, if they have been pulled out after experiencing drowning, or if they have been electrocuted.
Train all of your employees to give basic first-aid:
A study conducted on Australian construction workers showed that first-aid training helped make workers aware of their responsibility in avoiding personal injury and injury to co-workers. The study also found that accidents reduced most when all workers were given similar first-aid training. However, try to have at least one trained worker for every 50 workers in a low-risk place and one for every 25 workers in a high-risk environment.
Concluding Remarks
Workplace safety is not a step that you must take but a culture that you must imbibe to ensure a safe, accident-free environment for all your workers. A few small steps are all it takes to make your workplace a haven for your employees.
