Occupational injuries for workers in healthcare happen to be extremely common. Healthcare workers include everyone who works within the healthcare industry in a hospital, nursing facility, clinic, or any other healthcare institution. They are the ones who work to protect and improve the health of people in any way. Doctors, nurses, and paramedics, all fall under this category. Now, let us delve deeper into the topic to understand the most common occupational injuries in healthcare.
- Repetitive Stress or Overexertion
The most common injury among healthcare workers is repetitive stress or overexertion. It is caused by excessive physical efforts such as lifting a patient, twisting, bending, repetitive motions, and others. Back injuries are notably more common among aged workers, especially older nurses. Stress can also cause a mental health issue from excessive stressors and triggers in the workplace.
- Needle Sticks or Cut from Sharp Medical Instruments
Needlestick injuries among nurses happen to be extremely common. The workers in the field of healthcare routinely make use of needles and several other sharp medical instruments. Hence, needle sticks, cutting of the skin, and other similar injuries are typical in healthcare jobs that are directly associated with dealing with patients.
- Falls, Trips, and Slips
Falling, tripping, and slipping cause about one-third of healthcare occupational injuries. These can occur due to a wide array of reasons, such as wet floors, spilled medicines, bodily fluids, and many more. So, healthcare workers need to be extremely careful to prevent the same.
- Violence
Although surprising, violence is another major cause of injury among the workers in the healthcare sector. Medical workers and nurses, especially those working in emergency rooms, need to work with intoxicated patients, mentally ill patients, and their family members. Due to reactions to medication, patients often become violent, and the medical workers need to deal with them. In addition to this, they also need to handle agitated patient parties, which happens to be another reason for occupational injuries among healthcare workers.
- Exposure to Harmful Chemicals or Environments
Exposure to harmful substances or environments is another significant risk for healthcare workers. These hazards include volatile organic compounds, chemicals, pesticides, medications, and several others.
- Patient Handling Activities
Another important cause of occupational injury in healthcare jobs is the handling of patients. These include manual lifting of patients while transferring them from one position to another. During this transferring activity, the workers might get injured.
It is clear about the most common occupational injuries in healthcare workers. Thus, it is recommended to keep injuries in mind and always be careful to avoid injuries to the best of possibilities.
