In a fast-paced environment like a healthcare practice, manual handling may be one of the last concerns on your mind! Compared with roles in other industries, it might appear that there’s not really a need for time or attention to be put into it. However, for many team members within a practice there are still potential risks, including those associated with a predominantly sedentary role that might not allow the ideal full scope of physical activity throughout the day.
Making your practice safe and identifying potential for injuries doesn’t have to require a huge amount of work. A lot of the time it comes down to building awareness and responsibility in your team members. Is there a device they need that’s hiding on a shelf above their reach? Is there a substantial number of boxes that have just been delivered that need to be moved? Is there some repetitive action that’s become part of the role?
With a good awareness of potential hazards developed, you can then work together to identify and implement effective ways to prevent manual handling issues from occurring.
Underpinning these measures will involve putting a thorough Manual Handling Policy in place, properly training your team members on safe manual handling procedures, and consistently reinforcing and encourage safe manual handling in your practice.
Establishing your Manual Handling Policy
Safe manual handling can be considered obvious or ‘common sense’. Afterall, we lift and carry things all the time! It comes with the territory of being human. Unfortunately, things do go wrong at times, and the results can be serious – sometimes affecting people for their entire lives. Establishing and embedding a Manual Handling Policy will identify for your team members the importance of a safe approach, the actions and steps expected of them, and what’s required in the presence or prevention of an incident.
Some aspects to include in your Policy:
Points on how your practice is committed to preventing manual handling injuries, like consulting with team members to identify hazards, allocating sufficient resources to the management of them and ensuring the workplace environment is up-to-date on its safety measures.
Common duties that require manual handling techniques, and what the practice will do to ensure their team members’ safety, including resources, training and risk assessments.
The responsibility of all team members to identify manual handling hazards and bring these to the attention of management, and that the objectives of the policy are incorporated into your practice on a day-to-day basis.
That team members are responsible for performing their duties in a safe manner, and all systems and procedures that have been established are being carried out to reduce workplace injuries.
Your Policy will help to ensure that each team member has understood manual handling expectations and procedures, and how to safely perform the manual handling tasks in their role.
Areas of Manual Handling Training
Fortunately, most workplace injuries can be avoided by team members receiving the proper training. Your manual handling training can build awareness, identify areas of misunderstanding and opportunities for improvement, plus facilitate learning new methods and ways of doing things.
Common workplace injuries in a practice environment include sprains and strains, back and neck injuries, hernias, joint injuries, musculoskeletal disorders, and slips, trips and falls. In designing the content of your training (and specific inclusions in your Policy), it’s a good idea to consider all of these and where they could potentially occur in your workplace, and then how your team can avoid them. Some common hazard examples include:
Moving boxes of supplies – make sure your delivery drivers put them as close as possible to where they need to be unpacked, or if necessary get a small practice trolley.
Unpacking boxes on the floor – have a table available to put the box on that’s being unpacked.
Lifting an EFTPOS machine over and over – investigate options like cordless terminals etc.
Equipment that’s out of reach (leading to the temptation to use a chair or something inappropriate to stand on) – find a new home for it, and/or ensure that a step or small ladder is stored close at hand.
Heavy or awkward signage that needs to be put out each day – invest in permanent signage that doesn’t need to be moved around.
But not every potential manual handling situation will be avoidable, so with these identified, a proper training protocol will provide the skills for your team members to accomplish physical tasks without the risk of injury. The training will also show your team members that their health and safety is a top priority - for themselves and in the eyes of the practice. And an additional benefit will be avoiding people taking leave due to injuries, as well as the impacts on your WorkSafe premium.
If you can’t remember the last time your practice performed a risk assessment for the building and team members, it may be time to schedule in a walk through and observation of all roles, to identify any current and new risks that could make your team members vulnerable to injury.
Promoting Ongoing Safe Manual Handling
One responsibility that comes with being an effective leader is acknowledging that you lead by example in both a legal and moral sense. Of course it can be tempting to dive in and ‘just get things done’, but if you’re doing things like carrying a heavy box ‘just a short way’ or climbing a ladder in high heels to change a light bulb, you’re not going to be demonstrating behaviour you want your team to emulate!
Empowering your team members to ensure they’re working safely and comfortably will strengthen their confidence, and positively increase their productivity. Plus it’s good for them to see that as a team leader you recognise your responsibility to ensure that steps are being taken to reduce the risk of manual handling injuries for everyone. This will include raising any concerns with them directly, as well as practice owners/directors.
Alongside doing everything you can to support them to perform tasks safely, of key importance is an emphasis on personal responsibility in each team member. They have a duty to work and behave in a healthy and safe manner, including suggesting new processes and policies for inclusions, detecting unsafe behaviour around them and reporting incidents.
There are always going to be manual handling tasks that can’t be avoided, including in predominantly sedentary roles. Knowing how to safely perform those tasks will help to reduce the risk of injury in your practice, and support all team members to work efficiently in a safe environment. Happiness in the workplace is definitely impacted by us feeling supported and protected at work, and this includes physical safety.
Remember: lift with your legs, engage your core, and please use a ladder!
The Augmentum team provides a broad range of consultancy and management services, supporting healthcare business owners and decision makers in other key areas such as business coaching, strategy development and action planning, building effective foundations and teams, keeping your finger on the pulse, and driving growth and success. Get in touch to find out more, or check out our website www.augmentum.com.au.
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