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Potential Hazards in Health and Social Care Settings

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Potential Hazards in Health and Social Care Settings
While working at Langdale view a residential care home, I came across many potential hazards. A hazard is anything that can cause harm to an individual. Hazards affect all the people working in that care setting including, staff, visitors and individuals, there are a lot of hazards which can be found in and around every health and social care setting.
Hazards:
Hazards in the physical environment
The physical environment is the surroundings around you, a potential hazard that can occur from the physical environment within a health and social care environment such as a residential care home, can be poor ventilation because it is important that the air in a room is breathable an does not cause any breathing problems or spread infections. This is a health hazard because it can cause a person to become ill due to airborne infections. To reduce this risk, the ventilation should be checked regularly and windows should be opened from time to time.
Lighting in rooms of a residential care home is very important as poor lightning is a hazard especially for the elderly as some may have poor vision and if there is no emergency lightning there is a risk that an elderly resident will trip over something because they cannot see properly whereas if the lighting in the room is too bright, it can cause sight problems such as weak eyesight or watery eyes when in bright light.
Hazards from equipment
Hazards from equipment can include anything in the residential home that can make an elderly person trip over and hurt themselves just because someone has been careless or untidy. Many factors can cause slips, trips and falls, these include the way of cleaning, flooring type, footwear, levels of lighting, contrast between floors, walls and doors, and obstructions or other trip hazards.
Hazards from Infections
If procedures are

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