Explain the potential hazards and the harm that may arise from each in the different health and social care setting.

In this essay I am going to explain the hazards that are at risk in different health and social care settings. I am going to discuss the hazards that may arise in each of the settings in the case study
A hazard is any biological, chemical, mechanical, environmental or physical agent that is reasonably likely to cause harm or damage to humans, other organisms, or the environment in the absence of its control.

Case Study
John and Barbara Good live in Lisburn. John’s father 87 year old Jack has been admitted to hospital following a cerebra vascular accident. He has made a good recovery but still has some weakness down his left side and it has been suggested he moves to a residential home for a month to aid his recovery.
Barbara’s mother, Harriet has recently been widowed. Barbara has arranged with the social worker that she attends the local day centre, three days a week for social interaction. She is transported to and from the day centre by the bus.
John and Barbara’s three year old daughter Lucy attends Scribblers preschool. She enjoys all the activities there. Barbara and Lucy take the bus with their grandmother in to town as she enjoys shopping. A shopping expedition is always followed by a visit to the local park as Lucy playing on the swings.

Hospital
Physical Environment
87 year old was admitted to hospital due to a cerebra vascular accident, he was cared for in a single room on the medical ward. The room had an ensuite facility with a shower and toilet. The floors in the bathroom and bedroom could be slippy if water or urine was spilt on it, this may cause jack to slip and fall and can cause serious harm. The shower in the ensuite needs an emergency button as the tiles may become slippy when the shower is in use and this may cause jack to fall. The single room has a bed, chair, locker and table in it, so this makes less space for jack to move around in this may cause him to walk into objects and might cause bruising and cuts. All the furniture needs to be working properly e.g. if the table was unsteady and jack set down a hot drink, it may fall over and burn him. The bed needs to be able to be raised or lowered as jack has suffered a CVA and has weakness in his left side, he will need assistance and support, getting in and out of bed. Bedrails may be needed as he may be unsteady and have a tendency to fall out of bed and injure himself.

Equipment
A hospital has various pieces of equipment available e.g. needles, blood pressure monitors, thermometers, hoists and wheelchairs, all these pieces of equipment need to be cleaned thoroughly as they can cause infections if contaminated. All equipment needs to be checked regularly to see if it is still working e.g. if a doctor is checking jacks B.P and the cuff has gave a reading that is worrying the doctor might miss-diagnose him with an illness and put him on medication he doesn’t need, and it will affect his health. If jack needs help getting into bed with a hoist, it needs to be checked because if it is broken, when elevating jack up it may snap and drop him onto the hard floor and cause serious harm to his head.

Infections
When doctors and nurses are assessing Jack they should always wash their hands before and after as micro-organisms are small and exist on hands and surfaces. There are many patients in a hospital with different illnesses and infections can spread very quickly. Jacks immune system will be weak due to his CVA so he can catch an infection very quick, this will cause him to stay longer in hospital. The cleaning staff should dust and clean the ward daily to reduce the risk of infection.

Substances
Urine and blood pose a risk as they can spread HIV and Hepatitis so it is important that these substances are handled correctly so a patient or worker are not contaminated by these. If there are any spillages of these they must be properly