First Aid for Workplaces - A good Practice Guide
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How can First Aid fit together with Hazard Management in my Workplace?
The HSE Act includes a practical process that helps employers and others keep their workplaces safe. The process has three steps:
- identify hazards in your workplace
- consider if they are significant hazards that could cause serious harm
- take steps to protect people from hazards by - in order of preference - eliminating, isolating or minimising exposure to the hazards.
The Hazard and First Aid Assessment Register below shows you how you can use your hazard management process to help identify your first aid requirements, and combine the two in one easy to read worksheet.
Below is a short reminder of what you need to do to manage hazards.
Identify the hazards in your workplace
You can do this by conducting a site assessment of your workplace and noting any physical, chemical, environmental, biological, or other hazards that could potentially harm employees and others in the workplace. Note, work processes or changes in processes can cause hazards.
Involve employees in this process. Employees can have valuable information about the hazards they face and how to manage them, and involving them in improving health and safety is also a requirement of the HSE Act.
Consider the significance of the hazards - are they likely to cause serious harm?
The next step is to work out if each hazard could cause serious harm and is therefore significant.
Serious harm includes death and things like bone fractures, lacerations, crushing, amputation, burns requiring specialist treatment etc. It includes occupational illnesses as well as physical injuries. A full definition can be found at http://www.osh.govt.nz/law/quickguide/glossary.shtml#_ser
Serious harm also includes harm that has the potential to become more serious the more often people are exposed to the hazard. And it includes harm that may
not be easily detectable until some time after the person has been exposed to the hazard.
Helpful questions to help you work out if a hazard is significant and could serious harm include:
- How often are employees exposed to the hazard?
- When employees are exposed, how long are they exposed for?
- Are the possible injuries or illnesses likely to be sudden and severe, or develop slowly and last a long time?
Eliminate, isolate or minimise the hazards as far as practicable to reduce employee exposure to potential sources of harm
Employers are required to manage significant hazards to reduce the likelihood of employees being harmed. They must take all practicable steps to eliminate, isolate or minimise the hazards.
Eliminate: this is the preferred option. It means removing the hazard altogether so it can't harm anyone.
Isolate: this is the next preferred option. It means enclosing the hazard so it can't be reached by anyone. One example is machine guarding.
Minimise: this is the least preferred option. It means minimising the likelihood of people being harmed by providing things like training, personal protective clothing or equipment, signs, and by ensuring that emergency procedures are in place to cope with accidents.
Simply providing first aid will not cover your legal obligation to manage significant hazards. But it will help meet your obligation to provide an appropriate emergency response procedure in the event of an accident.
The Hazard and First Aid Assessment Register over shows how you can expand your hazard management plans to include first aid provisions. This will give you a useful snapshot of how health and safety can be managed in your workplace.