IRE378H1S Employment Health Winter 2017
Topic: Occupational Health and Safety issues across Canadian Nursing Industry Sutdent Name: Esther Lee Ho Ching(1001431364) Ho Ting Ip (1001425932) Executive Summary In this paper, we have investigated the health issues that nursing workers face in the nursing and healthcare industry, especially for those nurses who work at the hospitals. The laws in place are short-sighted and inflexible, which leads to the issue of workplace health and safety hazards. We research different factors: human, situational, and environmental, which contribute to workplace stress and subsequent disease. Based on the information, it is possible to make valid recommendations to the government, employers, and labor unions on how to reduce workplace health and safety issues.
For example, according to the OSHA website, the law requires employers to provide their employees with a safe and healthful workplace, which prohibits employers from retaliating against workers for exercising their rights (OSHA, n. d. ), but that is often not the case. For this issue, we recommend that the government authorize a system of "normal shift schedules" so as to allow workers to have normal working hours without the fear of termination.
Introduction
According to Statistics Canada, the healthcare industry reported the most illness cases than any other private sector in 2010, which has almost 654, 000 cases, and it is 152, 000 more cases than the next industry sector: manufacturing (Bureau of Labour Statistics, 2011). This fact just goes to show that healthcare workers face a number of serious safety and health hazards. According to OSHA, more workers are injured in the healthcare and social assistance industry sector than any other, which has one of the highest rates of work related injuries and illnesses (OSHA, 2016). In 2010, the incidence rate for work related non-fatal injuries and illnesses in healthcare and social assistance was 139. 9; the incidence rate for non-fatal injury and illnesses in all private industry was 107. 7 (OSHA, 2016). In this paper, we would specifically be discussing the health and safety hazard of the nursing industry at hospitals, where the various factors contributed to workplace threat, such as improper storage of hazardous materials and improper hospital design and layout. One of the most popular issue within this industry is the 'unexpected' infectious diseases and serious health hazards. Based on that, the plan and procedure protects its workers and operates according to the Human Rights Code but in fact, there are many disparities about what they provide in terms of compensation and working conditions.
In this paper, the issue of workplace stress, health and disease would be discuss in detail, making reference to the cases of anesthetic gases, SARS and Ebola. These issues have been controversial and harmful since they infected many people, especially nurses, and caused many illnesses and deaths not only...
