While being a construction worker can be very beneficial towards your family and community, it is no secret that the job has far more safety hazards than many career paths. There are numerous incidents or injuries that could occur that would impair your ability to work and cost you thousands in medical bills. It is imperative that you take as many measures as you can to ensure your personal safety.
Taking precautions at a construction site
Staying hydrated while working outside
No matter what your workplace looks like, the summer heat in Arizona presents an increased need for staying hydrated. There’s no shortage of articles and reports about the importance of staying hydrated. Especially in the summer.
Providing safe drinking water for employees is not just a nice thing for employers to do. It’s a requirement.
You don’t have to be working at heights to suffer a serious fall
From construction, to manufacturing, to health care, falls are a serious danger in a wide range of workplaces. When it comes to dangerous falls, a lot of attention goes to falls from heights. This is unsurprising, as such falls can lead to especially serious injuries and are responsible for hundreds of workplace deaths a year. However, it is important to remember that a fall doesn’t need to be from heights to cause you significant harm.
Working in confined spaces
Working in a confined space can make an ordinary job far more difficult. Not only is it small, as the name implies, the restricted area means that dangers can multiply quickly.
There are any number of things that can go wrong that could cause significant injury. Understanding the risks that come with working in a confined space can help you know the precautions you should take to do your job safely.
Getting back to work after an injury
Even when you’re compensated for your lost wages, after a workplace injury, you just want to be able to get back to work. It can get even more frustrating when there are restrictions on what you’re able to do as you transition back into your regular duties.
Then, there’s communicating all that information to your employer. You’d love to be able to say you’re ready to go back to your regular duties, but the reality is that you have some limitations.
Making long shifts more manageable
Long hours as a nurse are no surprise. It may not be your favorite part of the job, but it’s one of those things that you know about long before you sign up for nursing school.
For some nurses it’s part of the job that you deal with because you love what you do. For others, the longer hours mean that you get more days off and more time to recover between those long shifts.
Workplace safety for emergency medical personnel
As an Emergency Medical Technician, you spend your work week helping people who are at the worst moments of their lives. Your office can be anywhere. You might start the day on the side of the street helping with a car accident, and be in an office building at lunchtime.
With such an unpredictable day, it’s no surprise that you are especially prone to work-related injuries. But is there anything that you can do to prevent injuries?
Avoiding burnout in healthcare professions
Everyone tells you that your job must be difficult when you’re a nurse. But the truth is, you love it and you love the people you care for. That is what makes you great at what you do.
But the same thing that makes you great at what you do is what makes people in caregiving professions prone to burnout. You’re willing to do whatever it takes to make sure your patients get the care that they need. Make sure that while you're taking care of your patients, you're also taking care of yourself.
Recognizing signs of heat-related illnesses
There are plenty of dangers on a construction site, but in the summer the heat adds an extra hazard for construction workers who are often outside for long hours.
As a construction worker, you’re used to relying on the other members of your team to stay safe. Everyone needs to pay attention to hazards and communicate them to the rest of the team so that everyone can focus on the job and complete it safely.
Nurses get back pain by having their patient's backs
You became a nurse because you want to help people. You are naturally nurturing and intuitive. The job is demanding, sometimes sad and mostly rewarding. There are times when you get to think things through and take your time. There are also moments when you must act quickly, making important split-second decisions.
You were trained for this kind of thinking. Throughout the course of your schooling and employment, you were taught steps, procedures and protocol. This includes lifting and moving patients. Unfortunately, when transferring a patient, it is possible for you to become injured. This is especially true when working with larger patients, or when having to use repetitive motion.
