Working in health care is certainly dangerous to your health. Every day in the United States, 9000 health care workers sustain disabling injuries on the job. Every 30 seconds a health care worker is stuck by a needle, and one out of every 10 health care workers has developed an allergy to latex. This is just the beginning of the roll call of exposures. In many states, health care workers incur more lost time due to a violent act committed against them than law enforcement personnel. According to another book just published, Th e Epidemic of Health Care Work Injury: An Epidemiology, working in health care is more dangerous than working in a coal mine. And as a study conducted by the Minnesota Nurses Association has recently proved, managed care with its associated downsizing and de-skilling is turning an already bad/epidemic situation worse.
The Handbook of Modern Hospital Safety has been compiled to not only outline the problems that health care workers face, but also to show that there are solutions to the problems. This book covers the major exposures health care workers face; however, since the medical technology is always evolving, new problems have surfaced that did not make it into this book. For example, sonographers (ultrasound technicians), according to anecdotal information, have developed high rates of ergonomic injuries. In fact, the majority of the medical and clinical methods employed today were developed without any thought or a priori testing for occupational eff ects. And now, as there seems to be ever-increasing peer review evidence de ning the occupational threats to health care workers, there are ongoing obstacles to the implementation of the solutions that are both economic and political.
Contents
Product Details
The Handbook of Modern Hospital Safety has been compiled to not only outline the problems that health care workers face, but also to show that there are solutions to the problems. This book covers the major exposures health care workers face; however, since the medical technology is always evolving, new problems have surfaced that did not make it into this book. For example, sonographers (ultrasound technicians), according to anecdotal information, have developed high rates of ergonomic injuries. In fact, the majority of the medical and clinical methods employed today were developed without any thought or a priori testing for occupational eff ects. And now, as there seems to be ever-increasing peer review evidence de ning the occupational threats to health care workers, there are ongoing obstacles to the implementation of the solutions that are both economic and political.
- 1 Overview of Health and Safety in the Health Care Environment
- 2 Epidemiology
- 3 Back Injury Prevention in Health Care
- 4 Emerging Infectious Diseases
- 5 Disinfection and Infection Control
- 6 Progress in Preventing Sharps Injuries in the United States
- 7 Violence in the Health Care Industry
- 8 Prevention of Slip, Trip, and Fall Hazards for Workers in Hospital Settings
- 9 Ergonomics
- 10 Chemodrugs
- 11 Tuberculosis Engineering Controls
- 12 Electrocautery Smoke: Reasons for Scavenging
- 13 Safe Use of Ethylene Oxide in the Hospital Environment
- 14 Monitoring Aldehydes
- 15 Pentamidine
- 16 Ribavirin
- 17 Trace Anesthetic Gas
- 18 Cost–Benefit
- 19 Clinical Approach to Glove Dermatitis and Latex Allergy
- 20 Latex Glove Use: Essentials in Modern Hospital Safety
- 21 Health and Safety Hazards of Shiftwork: Implications for Health Care Workers and Strategies for Prevention
- 22 Radiation Protection in Hospitals
- 23 Reproductive Hazards in Hospitals
- 24 Medical Waste
- 25 The Occupational Hazards of Home Health Care
- 26 Caring Until It Hurts: How Nursing Work Is Becoming the Most Dangerous Job in America
- 27 Laboratory Safety
- 28 Biological Exposure Index Testing: Two Case Studies
- 29 Functions and Staffing of a Hospital Safety Office
- 30 Education for Action: An Innovative Approach to Training Hospital Employees
- 31 Stress Factors
- 32 Case Studies of Health Care Workers in the Compensation System
- Index
Product Details
- Hardcover: 1226 pages
- Publisher: CRC Press; 2 edition (July 28, 2009)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 142004785X
- ISBN-13: 978-1420047851