6 Important Safety and Health Tips for Healthcare Workers Preeti Baid December 20, 2018 Health & Beauty 3739 As much time as you spend on your patients’ health, there’s little time and energy left for your own. Get smart about it with these safety and health tips. One of the most common reasons that people leave the healthcare industry is because of burnout. Burnout happens when you’re overworked and tired, and when you’re overworked and tired, you’re more likely to get sick. With a few health tips, you’ll ensure that you’re prepared for those long hours and able to take a break when you need one. Here are five health and safety tips to ensure that you can give 100% to yourself and to your job. 1. Regular Handwashing is a Must While it might go without saying, but a healthcare worker has a lot on their hands, not only including work but a whole lot of potential germs and infections. If you don’t wash your hands as frequently as possible, you’ll risk passing on germs and disease to patients who are in recovery. As a healthcare worker, you need to aid as much as you need to protect everyone you come into contact with. If you’re not washing your hands after you work with any person or before you work with a new person, you’re taking unnecessary risks. Good health is in your hands and taking risks with other people’s health is antithetical to your job. While most hospitals have standards for handwashing that everyone tries to adhere to, this is really your first line of defense. If you don’t wash your hands regularly and go through gloves like there’s no tomorrow, you’re putting people at risk when they don’t need to be. If you notice other people aren’t doing the same, make sure you share that with your supervisor. Taking this too lightly is going to spread disease. 2. Flu Shots, Vaccinations, Oh My If you work in a modern hospital, you probably know the types of vaccinations that people need. You probably know of the way that anti-vaxxers have impacted the healthcare landscape. Without the right vaccinations, people are put at risk for diseases that are easily preventable. On top of vaccines, you can get shots to protect you and the people around you from common diseases and outbreaks. If you notice that there’s been a recent outbreak or the CDC has warned your region of looking out for a problem, get vaccinated. Rather than leaving yourself open for illness, protect yourself. When you protect yourself, you protect the people around you from those diseases as well. Healthy people often carry diseases and infections that sicker people get more easily. Those viruses may die in the body of someone healthy but in someone sick, those viruses spread, propagate, and grow. If you’re behind on any shots or if your children are, make sure you get everyone protected. You could carry something from your home to work. You also spend so much time around sick people that you need to keep those problems at bay. 3. Use privacy screens Privacy screens are essential to create a divide between one part of the hospital to other. They are usually used to create a private area while a doctor is checking on the patient. There are many benefits to it. From creating a private space to reducing the risk of infections, a privacy screen adds a lot of value to your hospital, clinic or any other medical institute. 4. Keep Your Scrubs Clean Your scrubs provide a lot of benefits to health and wellness. They’re often easy to clean spills out of and keep you from ruining your own clothes. However, your scrubs could become a petri dish easily. When you wash your scrubs, make sure you disinfect them and keep them separate from your other clothes. It’s important to keep anything that’s gotten onto your scrubs isolated from your other clothing. It’s also vital to kill any bacteria that’s made its way home with you. Healthcare workers wear your scrubs for many hours after they’ve finished their work for the day. That means that even after you’re no longer around sick people, you could be carrying disease or infection with you. Bring a change of clothes so that you can get out of your scrubs as soon as possible. You should have separate outfits from when you’re working with your healthcare patients and when you’re headed home. This helps to ensure that you protect your clothes but also that you don’t carry anything around with you, impacting other people as you travel. If you want better scrubs, take the time to read about what’s out there. 5. Mental Health Is Vital Too When you’re working in the healthcare industry, you’re working long hours taking care of people who need help. You see people who are very sick, who need your assistance, and even people in tragic situations. Often you see people in a crisis, in their most vulnerable position, you need to do some extra work to ensure that you can handle it. It’s reasonable to feel for the people who you interact with on a daily basis. There are ways that other people’s struggle impacts us all and it’s important to take that seriously. It’s okay to let it impact you, as long as you know how to cope with the stress yourself. Many people in the healthcare industry forget to take advantage of the mental health services available to them, including holistic approaches. Take advantage of them so that you can talk about the way your job impacts you. Getting things off your chest also ensures you make better decisions at work. The following are some examples of holistic approaches to attain good mental health: Meditation: This holistic practice trains the mind by focusing on awareness and thoughts on the present, an object, or any activity. It aims to bring the senses into a state of calmness and relaxation. You can use guided meditation apps to help you focus, bringing you a sense of calmness and serenity. Meditation is also a great way to reduce stress and anxiety. Yoga: It combines breathwork with physical movement by focusing on mindfulness and providing multiple benefits to attain mental wellness. Aromatherapy: The use of essential oils derived from flowers and other plant parts is called aromatherapy. For instance, lavender, eucalyptus, chamomile, or rose oils provide a sense of relaxation when inhaled. Good Nutrition And Exercise: This discussion won’t be complete without taking care of your body in promoting good mental health. That’s why good nutrition and exercise shouldn’t be neglected. As much as possible, avoid eating junk foods and foods that are high in sugar and preserved foods no matter how hard you crave these types of foods. Also, don’t forget to pay attention to your own health and wellness. A good diet and exercise schedule are hard to maintain when you work long hours, but it’s essential. 6. Your Neck, Your Back Long shifts on your feet will ensure that your neck and your back try out every position you’ve never wanted them to. A few simple practices ensure that you’re never in the wrong position. If you’re worried about your neck and your back, invest in some high-quality running shoes. Those $200 professional running shoes that marathon runners wear? Those are the ones that nurses will tear through in a year or two, but they’re also your most important protection from neck and back issues. If you have a chair, ensure that it’s got good support for your back. If it doesn’t, you can buy add-ons to improve it. If you have a chair, ensure that it’s got a good support for your back. If it doesn’t, you can buy add-ons to improve it. Check the following tips to ease neck and back pain: Get Plenty Of Exercises: Stretching, walking, and other passive and aerobic exercises can help ease neck and back pain. Weight-bearing and endurance exercises combined with passive exercise will help improve not just your neck and back but your overall health, too. Engage In Sports: Engaging in sports can help move your muscles and bones since it’ll contract them to increase blood flow and oxygenation, allowing them to recover from stress and injury. Learn more about the best women’s sports activities that you can try at womenssportdaily.co.uk. Try Chiropractic Treatment: Chiropractic neck adjustments or cervical manipulation can loosen up the neck joints, reducing pain caused by compressing nerves, strains, and muscle spasms. Follow Health Tips to Ensure You Provide Great Care If you want to provide the best care to your patients, you need to follow the health tips above. It’s hard to stay healthy and happy when you’re working long and exhausting shifts, but that that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. When you finally get that week off you’ve been waiting for, check out our guide to get the most out of your next vacation and read more on this article. SHARE THIS POST