Friday, June 17, 2016

STAFF * WORKPLACE

1.        Work ethics and employee rights and responsibilities
·       Workplace
Providing massage or fitness for all clients regardless of gender, race, soclo-economic status or religion (justice)
Working towards a beneficial outcome with your client (beneficence)
·       Appropriate behaviour in the professional setting: being friendly within the role is essential but is different to connecting in a personal and intimate manner.
·       Practice within the limitations of profession-related knowledge and skill. 
·       Self-disclosure: not to discuss the personal life and be careful about objectivity in the questions you ask a client. Ask therapeutic questions not the curious asking
·       Right to refuse to provide treatment if the client is unable to respect the professional boundaries.
·       Legal/ethical guidelines including: access (contact) and equity (justice), anti-discrimination, child protection, infection control work health and safety (WHS) and duty of care
Infection control aims to prevent pathogens from coming into contact with a person in the first place.
To assume that everyone is potentially infectious. Proper procedures have to be followed at all times.
Every workplace should have an appropriate first aid kit, with at least one staff member trained in first aid. Equipment such as gloves, gowns, eye goggles and face shields should be provided if necessary.
·       Policies and procedures
A Policy is a statement that clearly and unambiguously sets out an organisation’s guiding principles and views about a particular matter.
A Procedure is a clear step-by-step method for implementing an organisation’s policy or responsibility.
Procedures can described by
·       written steps of the process
·       Flowcharts
·       Checklists
or
·       Transport used items and equipment to the cleaning area according to organisation policies and procedures

Notes:
A policy is a principle or protocol to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes.
A policy is a statement of intent, and is implemented as a procedure or protocol.
Policies are generally adopted by management within an organiation whereas procedures or protocols would be developed and adopted by senior management
Policies can assist in both subjective and objective decision making. Policies to assist in subjective decision making would usually assist senior management with decisions that must consider the relative merits of a number of factors before making decisions and as a result are often hard to objectively test
In contrast policies to assist in objective decision making are usually operational in nature and can be objectively tested.
Policy content – Policy documents often come with the endorsement or signature of the executive powers within an organization to legitimize the policy and demonstrate that it is considered in force
Such documents often have standard formats that are particular to the organization issuing the policy. While such formats differ in form, policy documents usually contain certain standard components including:
HLTHIR301C
·       Awards
·       Client confidentiality
Rules or Promises limits access Or Places restrictions on information
Not reveal clients information to a third party without the clients’ consent i.e. Bank account information or medical record should never be revealed
·       Cultural diversity
: Cultural diversity refers to the many different cultures that make up
a society.
o  Being aware of cultural diversity when working with others
o  Making sure all clients and staff are treated equally
o  Using cultural understanding when dealing with people
·       Workplace and environment sustainability
Work ethic - the principle that hard work is intrinsically virtuous or worthy of reward.
Workplace health and safety legislation requires employers to ensure that workplaces are both physically and mentally healthy for all employees. This means steps must be taken to ensure that the working environment does not harm mental wellbeing or aggravate an existing condition.
·         Anti-discrimination - in selecting or rejecting employees for promotion, transfer and training
What are my responsibilities?
WH&S laws protect your right to a safe workplace, but you also have responsibilities under the same legislation. You must take care of yourself and others and cooperate with your employer in matters of health and safety. This applies to all workers, whether they have a disability or not.
As well as this, under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth) your ability to work safely is an 'inherent' or essential requirement of any job. If your disability could reasonably be seen to create a health and safety risk for other people at work, then your failure to tell anyone about that risk could be a breach of your obligations under WH&S legislation.
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  The policies and procedures were explained in detail to each employee during their first week of employment with the company.
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  Every company has different policies and procedures. Your first day you will be given a packet that outlines what the company expects as far as dress code, behaviors, time off and holidays. It is good to keep it on hand to reference when questions arise about what the company allows and doesn�t allow.
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  After reviewing his handbook, Peter realized that the policies and procedures did indeed ban the use of personal computers and cell phones at work and that several of his employees were in violation.

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/policies-and-procedures.html
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Awards - The Fair Work Commission has announced a 2.4% increase to minimum wages. The increase will apply from 1 July 2016.
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Client confidentiality is the principle that an institution or individual should not reveal information about their clients to a third party without the consent of the clientor a clear legal reason. This concept is commonly provided for in law in most countries.
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In our workplaces, most of us would accept cultural diversity as part of everyday life.  If we were to think though about why embracing or being explicit about celebrating diversity matters, I think we can put it in the following terms: it is about capturing talent, it is about boosting innovation, it is about encouraging productivity.  Let’s think about what the future Australian workforce is going to look like.  If we are talking about a country that still takes in a significant number of immigrants every year, where almost half that population is first or second generation, then this diversity isn’t likely to diminish in any way.  If you think of the source countries of our migration at the moment, the two biggest source countries are now India and China.  Diversity will endure.
There’s a negative case too – if we can call it that – for thinking about cultural diversity in the workplace.  Where an organisation is able to manage its cultural diversity and be inclusive, it is more likely to reduce the cost of staff turnover, more likely to minimise legal and compliance risks, more likely to negotiate any negative publicity that may arise from mismanaging a case involving diversity.  There are some interesting statistics from America, which illustrate that share prices for publicly listed companies can drop significantly within 24 hours when a diversity related complaint becomes public.
There’s also a positive case. Economists from Stanford University and the University of Chicago recently finalised some research looking at labour productivity in the United States from 1960 to 2008 and they found that 20% of productivity growth over that time can be attributed to a reduction in racial discrimination.  Other research shows that companies with high executive and board diversity had returns on equity that were on average 53% higher than those with low levels of diversity.  In the US over a 10 year period, the top 50 companies for diversity outperformed the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index by 25.8% and the NASDAQ by 28%.  In the Financial Times, there was a report about a study by the American Sociological Association which found that every 1% rise in gender ethnic diversity results in a 3-9% rise in the sales revenue.  So the numbers look pretty convincing and compelling when you aggregate all of that. The picture’s pretty clear. 
So how then do we embrace diversity in the workplace? What does this practically look like?  We can reduce it to a question: is it about festivals or fairness? I’m sure we all here love our Harmony Day lunches on 21 March. Many of you would have had delicious lunches in your workplace; you might have might have encouraged workers to dress up in their ancestral costumes or do something to express their cultural heritage.
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Workplace and environmental sustainability
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2. Employee professional requirements
·       Purpose of organisation goals and objectives and aiming to achieve them
·       How to conform with all relevant accreditation standards whilst working
·       The need to participate in discussions on how to improve workplace procedures and promote good health
·       How to embrace all changes with optimism
·       Reporting requirements including levels of authority
·       What quality improvement practice and why it is important
·       What is client centred health care
·       Patient safety is of upmost importance in the health care industry, how do we ensure this?
1.        they provide guidance and direction,
2.      facilitate planning,
3.     motivate and inspire employees,
4.      and help organizations evaluate and control performance.

How to conform with all relevant accreditation standards whilst working

The need to participate in discussions on how to improve

3.    Employee personal hygiene requirements
·       The link between personal hygiene PPE
Refers to protective clothing, helmets, goggles, other garments or protect body from injury equipment include: physical, electrical, heat, chemicals, biohazards, airborne particulate matter.
and
risks contamination (pollution)
Hands become contaminated through contact with respiratory secretions when coughing or sneezing or by touch
and
Infection (dirt) in the health environment
Coughs/sneezes/spread to food or objects by dirty hands, sharing personal items, clothings..

·       Correct disposal (throwing away) of infectious and /or hazardous waste material
Wear disposable powder-free latex or vinyl gloves, and a plastic apron if necessary

For blood and body fluid spills, absorb the bulk of the spill with disposable materials such as paper towels. Special care should be taken if waste contains sharp material such as broken glass. Use sturdy tongs, and wrap sharps securely in several layers of newspaper or put into a puncture-resistant rigid-walled container such as a sharps container

Clean the spill with warm water and detergent
After cleaning, disinfect the area with a freshly prepared solution of 1:50 diluted 5% household bleach* ** and leave to dry. For small spills (e.g. spots of blood on vinyl floor) an alcohol wipe may be sufficient

Cleaning equipment such as mops and buckets should be cleaned with warm water and detergent and stored dry
Remove and dispose of gloves and other waste such as paper towels into a sealable plastic bag. Refer to the pictorial Removal of Gloves Technique. Dispose of the sealed plastic bag in general waste. Wash hands thoroughly with soap, water and dry with paper towels. Refer to the pictorial Hand Washing Technique

If the spill is on carpet, clean with a neutral detergent and arrange for the carpet to be cleaned with an industrial cleaner as soon as possible
Granular formulations that produce high available chlorine concentrations can be used to contain the spill and prevent airborne contaminants

If staff or students find potentially infectious waste items, such as used needles and syringes in school/TAFE grounds, they should immediately advise relevant staff. Where possible, a responsible person should remain with the item while another retrieves appropriate handling and disposal equipment. No attempt should be made to recap, break or bend the needle as this is a common cause of injury. The department has developed a fact sheet relating to appropriate handling and disposal of used syringes Safe Handling and Disposal of Needles and Syringes

If a Needle-stick or other injury involving exposure to blood or body fluids occurs, the person should be medically assessed as soon as possible.


·       Action to be taken if a hazard or probable hazard is identified
·       Eliminate - remove the hazard completely from the workplace e.g. removing trip hazards on the floor or disposing of unwanted chemicals. This is the most effective control measure and must always be considered before anything else.
·       Substitute - substitute or replace the hazard with a less hazardous work practice e.g. replace solvent-based paints with water-based paints.
·       Isolate - as much as possible, separate the hazard or hazardous work practice from people by distance or using barriers e.g. placing guards around moving parts of machinery.
·       Engineering controls - these are physical control measures e.g. use a trolley to lift heavy loads.
·       Administrative controls - these should only be considered when other higher order control measures are not practicable. These are work methods or procedures that are designed to minimise the exposure to a hazard e.g. developing a procedure on how to operate machinery safely or use signs to warn people of a hazard.
·       Personal protective equipment (PPE) - this should be the last option. PPE, such as ear muffs, hard hats, gloves and protective eyewear, relies on the proper fit and use of the PPE, but does nothing to change the hazard itself.


4.    Employer professional development requirements

·       How to recognise and prioritise work goals
Recognise work goals.
Career – What level do you want to reach in your career, or what do you want to achieve?
Financial – How much do you want to earn, by what stage? How is this related to your career goals?
Education – Is there any knowledge you want to acquire in particular? What information and skills will you need to have in order to achieve other goals?
Family – Do you want to be a parent? If so, how are you going to be a good parent? How do you want to be seen by a partner or by members of your extended family?
Artistic – Do you want to achieve any artistic goals?
Attitude – Is any part of your mindset holding you back? Is there any part of the way that you behave that upsets you? (If so, set a goal to improve your behavior or find a solution to the problem.)
Physical – Are there any athletic goals that you want to achieve, or do you want good health deep into old age? What steps are you going to take to achieve this?
Pleasure – How do you want to enjoy yourself? (You should ensure that some of your life is for you!)
Public Service – Do you want to make the world a better place? If so, how?
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How to Prioritize Work Goals
1. Which goal(s) do I think about the most?

2. Which goal(s) would give me the most energy if I could commit to it now?

3. What accomplishments would make me feel the most proud of myself?

4. Which accomplishments can I take with me forever, and/or which accomplishments would seem the most permanent to me? Is this important to me?

5. In ten years from now, how important will the goal be to me?

6. Which goals are in line with my true values?

7. Which goals are fully within my control, and not too dependent on other people or circumstances?

8. Is this goal an external ‘should’ or an internal desire?

9. What do I have a sense of urgency to get on with right away?

10. If I could take action in spite of my fear, what might I want for myself right now?

11. Which goals give me a heavy or lethargic sensation when I think about them, and which goals give me a positive “rush” of endorphins when I think of them?

12. Which goals and their required efforts best fit into the “flow” or pace of my life? Which fit best within my current life context and/or circumstances?

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How to Prioritize My Work Goals
Limited Time
Big goals=Big efforts
Great Achievements Require Knowing Your Strengths
Do you Love it Enough to Risk a Lot?
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·       How to identify areas requiring knowledge and skills growth (personal reflection and supervisor feedback)

the goalposts in the workplace keep moving. because of new technology, customer demand, legislation or simply because there is a new chief executive with a different vision. So if you want to protect your employablity, you need to take charge of your personal development.
o  Enhancing your performance
o  Benchmarking the job market
o  Knowledge updating
o  Softer skills
o  Different routes to personal development
Here are some other professional development ideas:
• Reading professional journals, books, research papers, articles etc
• Coaching, mentoring, training courses, academic study, conferences and webinars
• Voluntary work, fundraising and event management
• Research activities, blogging and publishing articles
• Training others and giving presentations or speaking at a conference
• Spending time with other departments, customers, suppliers, trade bodies or stakeholders
• Joining committees, professional associations, campaign groups and participating in industry forums
• Apprenticeships, internships, work shadowing and secondments
• Applying for industry awards or scholarships

·       What options are available to address skill/knowledge shortages
·       Train and develop employees on the job. On-the-job training allows employees to learn while actual work gets done. And, it can be a highly effective way to transfer implicit knowledge between employees.
·       Give employees the tools to share knowledge. Knowledge sharing and cross-functional collaboration provide employees with learning materials and experiences. Coaching, mentoring, wikis, expertise location databases, and communities of practice can be time and cost-effective ways for employees to share knowledge.
·       Use technology to manage and deliver learning. Technology can automate and streamline learning. Advanced databases can collect and organize training records, career trajectories, and performance reviews. This information can be used to prioritize the learning experiences that employees need most and ensure that employee learning hours are used effectively.
·        Offer career paths and career planning tools to guide employee learning. Empower employees to direct their own development. Offer self-service career planning tools, such as online career development portals that detail competency requirements for different roles and offer suggestions for ways that employees can build proficiency outside of the classroom—through on-the-job experiences, mentoring relationships, and informal training, for example.

·       Participate in skill/knowledge training or maintenance activities

5.    Ramifications (difficulty) of not following standard procedures


6.    How to successfully communication in a health setting

·       Recognising cultural differences, respect and how to modify communication effectively to suit diversity (variety) and different levels of authority
·       meeting the communication needs of people from different cultures
·       creative methods to overcome language barriers
·       using interpreters to assist with communication.


·       Self-evaluation of own personal communication skills to identify strengths and weaknesses
Strengths

o  What advantages do you have that others don't have (for example, skills, certifications, education, or connections)?
o  What do you do better than anyone else?
o  What personal resources can you access?
o  What do other people (and your boss, in particular) see as your strengths?
o  Which of your achievements are you most proud of?
o  What values do you believe in that others fail to exhibit?
o  Are you part of a network that no one else is involved in? If so, what connections do you have with influential people?

Weaknesses

·         What tasks do you usually avoid because you don't feel confident doing them?
·         What will the people around you see as your weaknesses?
·         Are you completely confident in your education and skills training? If not, where are you weakest?
·         What are your negative work habits (for example, are you often late, are you disorganized, do you have a short temper, or are you poor at handling stress)?
·         Do you have personality traits that hold you back in your field? For instance, if you have to conduct meetings on a regular basis, a fear of public speaking would be a major weakness.

·       How to respond to patient and colleague enquiries following workplace and procedures
Respond to customer complaints positively, sensitively and politely
workers and colleagues as cultural brokers as required to meet duty of care.
engage in meaningful ethical discussions


·       Engage in proper communication with clients and colleagues that is consistent with promoting a good health care environment.

7. Dealing with conflict
·       How to recognise, evade(avoid) and handle conflicts of interest
The ‘sniff test’ – does this ‘smell’ right? (recognise)

Handle conflicts of interest
Policies and procedures

Well designed policies and procedures will help boards and their members identify and deal with conflicts of interest. These can provide clear guidelines for simple and predictable situations and establish a process for dealing with the more difficult ones. The seriousness of some situations will be a question of degree or materiality and not easily managed by a ‘hard and fast’ rule.  For example, sometimes the existence of a conflict of interest will not outweigh the value of an, at least, partial contribution by the conflicted individual to the board’s deliberations.

Determination of the desired board culture

There is value in a board engaging explicitly in the deliberate development of a desired board culture. An effective governance culture is likely to be based on characteristics such as professionalism, capability, accountability, independence, trust, diligence and candour.  Candour and trust are particular characteristics of the context within which conflicts of interest need to be handled.

Induction

The effective induction of new board members is an important adjunct to the development of appropriate policies and procedures.  New board members must be under no misunderstanding about the organisation’s expectations of how its governors will behave when their personal interests may conflict with those of the organisation. Ideally, an existing conflict or potential for a conflict of interest should be declared and the ramifications discussed prior to election or appointment to the board. In some cases the appointment should not proceed.

Ongoing Training and Development

It is also important for existing board members to have an opportunity to update their knowledge and understanding of matters like the handling of conflicts of interest. Thinking about the best way to handle conflicts of interests is constantly changing as a consequence of public controversies, judicial decisions and statements of best practice released by regulators and professional associations.

Disclosure and recording

Having an effective process of disclosure is central to any board’s ability to continuously assess the seriousness of an actual or potential conflict of interest. Each board should have an interests register, updated at least annually and as necessary (as a result of changes in directors’ circumstances) during the year. Depending on the agenda to be covered at each board meeting directors should make further declarations about possible conflicts that might arise during the meeting.  A potential conflict may also arise between meetings. The director concerned should raise this with an appropriate person (often the chairman, or possibly the chief executive) as soon as the risk is identified.
The onus of declaration is on the individual. It is invariably awkward and embarrassing when a board has to ‘call’ one of its members on a failure to declare an interest. A declaration should be made as long as possible before the matter in which a director has an interest, is discussed. If any doubt remains, the matter should be treated as a conflict. If necessary, legal advice should be taken and all disclosures should be recorded in writing. Disclosure should be thorough enough to allow the board to make an informed decision when assessing an actual or perceived conflict of interest.


·       Methods of how to resolve conflict and individual differences in the work environment
Increased understanding:
The discussion needed to resolve conflict expands people's awareness of the situation, giving them an insight into how they can achieve their own goals without undermining those of other people;
Increased group cohesion:
When conflict is resolved effectively, team members can develop stronger mutual respect and a renewed faith in their ability to work together; and
Improved self-knowledge:
Conflict pushes individuals to examine their goals in close detail, helping them understand the things that are most important to them, sharpening their focus and enhancing their effectiveness.


8. Promote a positive approach to health
·       Clarify components of own role that contribute to maintaining an effective and client-centred approach to health
What is your role as a sterilising technician?
As a sterilising technician, you will be trained in areas that will equip you with the skills and knowledge to:
o  read theatre lists and prepare priority processing for the day.
o  prepare and pack instruments
o  sterilise instruments
o  distribute sterile stock
o  communicate with clients from other wards and hospitals
o  communicate and work in with theatres.
Our service to our clients goes beyond what is listed above, however. We are not there just to sterilise and prepare instrumentation. We are also there to promote a positive approach to health. We are to:
o  Promote an approach in which clients are included in shared decision-making as partners in health care, where appropriate
o  Contribute to a workplace culture of promoting good health by sharing health information in line with organisational policy
o  Focus on preventing ill-health and minimising risk in the workplace.

·       Promote an approach in which clients are included in shared decision-making as partners in health care where appropriate
Client safety: Safety is everyone’s business
Reducing adverse events and improving the quality of health care for the community can be achieved with well-prepared health care workers who have the intention to and are ready to work safely.
Health care workers who are educated and trained to work together can reduce risks to patients/clients, themselves and their colleagues when they manage incidents proactively and maximise opportunities to learn from adverse events and near misses. Organisations also have an opportunity to provide the appropriate systems and support to enable their workforce to learn and apply the skills and knowledge required for patient/client safety.
Being client-centred
Clients need to be at the centre of care, not at the receiving end of care. All health care workers, need to put patient/client interests first. They need :
o  to seek and provide them with full information
o  to be respectful of their cultural and religious differences
o  to seek permission to treat and work with them
o  to be honest when things go wrong or the care is suboptimal
o  to focus health care services on prevention and minimisation of risk or harm.
The consumer perspective
Consumer perspectives on health care include care over the individuals lifecycle —staying healthy, getting better and living with illness. These are reflected in the changing health care environment including:
o  a shift from acute to chronic care
o  the need to handle a continually expanding evidence base and technological innovations
o  complex delivery arrangements
o  more care in teams
o  changing provider – patient relationships.
All this has created new demands on the health care workforce.
Emphasising the importance of quality health care
If there is good quality health care then patient/client safety is enhanced. The key dimensions of quality health care are:
o  safety
o  effectiveness
o  appropriateness
o  efficiency
o  access.

Key aspects of client safety

·       Contribute to a workplace culture of promoting good health by sharing health information in line with organisation policy
o  include clients in shared decision-making as partners in health care
o  share health information with clients.
Case1:
One of your clients is a Dr Jones from a private clinic who has come to the SSD (Solid State Drive) to have new equipment sterilised. His clinic has just opened and he has come to you for advice on the best way to set this all up. SSD is to provide an ongoing service to his clinic. You check that the equipment is not single use only and is appropriate for sterilisation.
Case2:
Both you and Dr Jones agree that he needs a transport trolley to carry the equipment across to the SSD. The question is what type of transport trolley?
o  Automated trolleys
o  Washing collection trolleys
o  and
o  Collection bins/containers
o  The containers and trolleys should be made of metal or plastic material and be capable to cleaning.

How would you explain to Dr Jones, your client, the differences in the various transport trolleys? Again take into account your role to promote a client-centred approach. Can you think of various ways (apart from speech) that you can use to share your information?



·       How to reduce risk and prevent poor health in the workplace environment
·       put clear policies in place regarding personal hygiene and cleanliness in the workplace, including properly washing hands;
·       keep all areas of the office clean;
·       ensure the fridge and kitchen cupboards are cleaned out frequently and dispose of any items that have passed their used-by date;
·       disinfect shared work items between uses;
·       send home any worker who is obviously unwell;
·       provide flu vaccinations to workers;
·       provide health checks to workers;
·       if necessary, create procedures to deal with employees returning from zones in the world with high disease risks; and
·       encourage workers to take personal leave if they feel unwell, particularly if they have flu-like symptoms.

Whatever system is used, any sharps, body fluids or disposable products, should already have been removed by the user prior to the instruments and equipment arriving in the SSD.

9. Work effectively within the health care system
·       Demonstrate respect for workers from different sectors and levels of the industry
Developing a sense of belonging is one of the main aims that workers within community services organisations, including workers in the sterilising services, need to attain for clients, and staff. Without this sense of belonging, it is difficult for individuals to feel respected and valued.
When a person feels as though they belong to a group or team, it is then that they feel valued and are able to form trusting working relationships to cooperate with the completion of duties and collaborate in the development of the team.
Effective communication skills, both verbal and non-verbal, affect an individual’s ability to develop a sense of belonging to a group. Therefore, to develop good work relations within community services organisations it is essential that our communication skills convey respect, understanding and a value for individual differences and diversity. Knowledge of each individual team member’s role and responsibilities, expertise and skills support the development of respectful and cooperative workplace relations.

·       Work with awareness of the roles of various organisations in the health care system in Australia
·       Maintain awareness of current issues influencing health care, including health issues for indigenous Australians


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