No one ever goes to work and expects to get injured. Workplace accidents and injuries in the United States, cost employers $62 billion, according to the 2016 Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index (Donlon, 2016). Of the $62 billion, 82.5% of those injuries can be credited to 10 of the leading causes (Donlon, 2016). Some of the most serious are nonfatal workplace injuries, yet they still cost companies millions of dollars every year. The workplace injuries impact more people involved than just the person who was hurt and the employer. The employees’ family can be affected by the financial burden, medical costs, and the physical, emotional and psychological wellbeing of the employee. The employer and its employees are also affected. In addition …show more content…
Employees failing to take a break to rest and recover from manual labor leads to fatigue. This can also lead to physical issues, exhaustion and atrophy. For employers who work their employees’ 10-hour shifts, research has found accidents increase rapidly during the last 2 hours of the shift, mostly due to fatigue (Donlon, 2016). Fatigue is also a leading cause of highway accidents. Bus drivers and truck drivers who fall asleep while driving are related to fatigue and contribute to 10% of all collisions (Schultz & Schultz, 2016). Encouraging employees to not only get a good night’s sleep, but also to take their regularly scheduled breaks will cut down on fatigue and costs of fatigue related …show more content…
Inadequate lighting contributes to a high number of accidents each year. Accidents are higher in areas where the lighting is inadequate like a factory or plant. Poor lighting can also lead to many physical ailments, such as eye strain, headaches, bad mood, poor concentration, dissatisfaction, and absenteeism (Schultz & Schultz, 2016). Working under the wrong type of lighting can slow productivity and lead to more accidents. Employers need to take the initiative to have the lighting checked and changed on a monthly basis to ensure employee safety. Temperature can make a difference on employee safety as well. Studies have proven accident rates are lower when temperatures are maintained between 68 to 70 degrees (Schultz & Schultz, 2016). When cooler or warmer, accidents increase, workers become more careless when discomfort from high temperatures. Age and temperature combined can affect the productivity of workers; younger employees are not as affected by high heat, where older workers are affected by extreme climate and temperature changes (Schultz & Schultz,
In 2011 The Joint Commission called attention to healthcare worker fatigue and the impact it was having on patient safety. They found a direct link between healthcare worker fatigue and adverse events. They recommended healthcare facilities assessed their policies to identify fatigue-related risks, such as off-shift hours and consecutive shift work, and review their staffing to address areas that may be contributing to nurse fatigue (Martin, 2015).
Harrington, J. M. (2001). Health Effects of Shift Work and Extended Hours of Work. OEM Education. Retrieved on December 3, 2013, from http://oem.bmj.com/content/58/1/68.full. doi: 10.1136.oem.58.1.68
Theis, J.L., & Finkelstein, M.J. (2013). Long-Term Effects of Safe Patient Handling Program on Staff Injuries. Rehabilitation Nursing, 39, 26-35. DOI:10.1002/rnj.108
2011 Weigel and Armijos 2011). “Little empirical data are available examining the injury experience of hired crop workers in the United States (US).”(Wang, Myers et al. 2011) Work-related injury data from a national survey collected through the National Agricultural Workers Survey (NAWS) in the years 1999, 2002, 2003, and 2004 on 13,604 crop farm workers revealed that the bulk of injuries occurred to male (84%) and Mexican born (72%) workers. “The use of hand tools, falls, and lifting overexertion injuries were identified as significant causes of injury among hired crop workers. Increased injury risk was also seen for crop workers with existing health or musculoskeletal complaints....
Individuals who do rotating shift work are also likely to experience disruptions. changes so frequently that it becomes difficult for a normal circadian rhythm to be maintained. This often results in sleeping problems, and it can lead to signs of depression and anxiety. These kinds of schedules are common for individuals working in health care professions and service industries, and they are associated with persistent feelings of exhaustion and agitation that can make someone more prone to making mistakes on the job
Are your department employees tired, unfocused, and without motivation by the middle of the afternoon? Are their too many accidents in the lab? I have the perfect solution! Allow department employees to take breaks throughout the workday. In the following pages I will show why the brain needs downtime and how breaks allow employees to be more productive.
Occupational injuries pose a major public health problem. In 2002 it was revealed that more than 5,500 workers died as a result of occupational injuries (Barry S. Levy, 2006). It further revealed that another 4.4million non-fatal injuries among workers were registered (Barry S. Levy, 2006).
1. BREAKS You need to be able to take regular breaks – not just for the odd ten minutes so that you can drink a lukewarm mug of coffee. Real respite is necessary to avoid you driving yourself into the ground because no-one can work round the clock without an impact on their health. 2.
Many people feel like they’ll be able to overcome their tiredness but truthfully you cannot fight your sleepiness especially while you are out on the road. Others believe that once they get on the road they’ll be able to wake up but that’s not always the case. Instead of pulling over their vehicles, many people chose to continue to drive while they are tired. This can be an extremely dangerous routine to adopt. According to researchers, many of the fatal crashes showed that the drivers were not getting enough sleep and were up longer than they need to be. Drivers that pulled over and took a nap were less likely to end up in a fatal accident (OH Editorial Staff). Some drivers also said that they didn’t feel too comfortable pulling over on the side of the road to take a nap because they felt it wasn’t safe (Yee 232). This can be true in some cases but people that feel this way would have to ask, would they rather take the chance of seriously injuring themselves?
To reduce the work-related medical expenses, controlling the incidence of workplace injuries would be an effective way in addressing the problem. In this essay, the use
At this moment, millions of Americans are working, traveling, driving, walking, shopping and driving, with so much activity in a person’s everyday life its no wonder accidents have become inevitable. Many accidents can be severe and life altering or even result in death, but the fact that accidents are fairly familiar does not reduce from the confusion and pain that can result when an injury or accident happens to you or a loved one. This is especially true when any harm could have been prevented if others had not acted inconsiderately. Personal injury can be psychological or physical but, to be considered unlawful, it must happen due to the negligence or unreasonably unsafe actions of your company, your physician, or some other person or corporation who owes you a duty of ordinary care.
This was the first time the idea came up that injured employees should be compensated, no matter who was at fault for the accident. This was the sign of the beginnings of change, but perspectives on health and safety still held employees responsible and accountable for all injuries and incidents. Moreover, at this time in history, the federal government did not view workplace safety as an area where it had jurisdiction. The.
Long working hours continue to be one of the largest health concerns in the world. Currently, the world population has become so busy due to the pressure from harsh economic conditions. People are therefore spending long working hours in the workplace, which is an aspect that has negative impact on their health conditions. Statistics from Working Condition Survey indicates that approximately 30% of workers residing in European Union believe that their health is at risk due to the hours they spent in the workplace (Gurung, 2010:16)
Fitness programs can reduce absenteeism. There are many documented situations of fitness and wellness programs are effective. In a one-year study of over 500 employees, each took part in a work place fitness program. The for each employee that worked out as little one day a week, cut their average number of sick days in half, from over ten sick days on average in the previous year without any activity to less than five in the following year. The report also showed that the employees that did not maintain a workout load of at least once a week did not reduce any sick-days. (Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 1997; 39:827-831) Each of the participants followed a one-hour supervised workout consisting of a warm-up, stretching, calisthenics, cardiovascular and strength-building program. Later in the study Dr. Lilian Lechner, M.P.H. stated, “While previous studies have found that employees most likely to partake in workplace fitness programs are those who already get the most regular exercise and tend to be in better health, the current show that work-based fitness offers added health benefits for employees regardless of their fitness level.
Accidents occur in the workplace but in secret. These most of the time lead to physical and mental injuries that might affect the worker way of living for the rest of their lives. It is estimated that more than 337 million workers get injured in their place of work or in the course of work every year leading to work-related diseases causing about 2.3 million deaths per year (United States Department of Labor, n.d.).