LO4- Incidents and emergencies

• Incident- event that causes harm, damage or loss to a person, people or environment
• Emergency- serious unexpected event that requires immediate action to be taken
• Accident- unexpected event that causes injury, damage or loss
• Incident and emergency examples

  • Accidents
  • Exposure to infections
  • Exposure to chemicals
  • Spillages
  • Intruders
  • Aggressive/ dangerous behaviour
  • Fire
  • Floods
  • Loss of water
  • Critical incidents
• Accidents

  • Result of poorly maintained areas, fittings, equipment
  • Those in health, social and childcare are more susceptible to accidents due to reduced mobility and lack of awareness of potential hazards
  • Poor working practice may also cause this
• Exposure to infections

  • Those in health, social and childcare are more susceptible to this
  • Poor environmental conditions like inadequate ventilation and lack of running water
  • Poor working practice - poor personal hygiene
• Exposure to chemicals

  • Can happen if exposed to a hazardous substance
  • Occur due to spillages or specified safe practices are not followed
• Spillages

  • Bodily fluids can lead to outbreak of infection and cause disease
  • Consequences can be severe
• Intruders

  • Enter buildings through poorly maintained/ inadequate locks on doors or windows
  • Access due to poor working practice which fails to ensure only authorised personnel have access
  • Guarding against intruders is essential in protecting people's electronic and paper information
  • Intruders cause emotional upset as well as damage and loss
• Aggressive and dangerous encounters

  • Can cause accidents, e.g. fallen down the stairs by someone who has abused alcohol
• Fire

  • Can have devastating consequences
  • Fire safety includes knowing how to prevent fires from starting and spreading
  • Is everyone's responsibility
• Flood

  • Caused by water escaping from an item
  • Can be caused by failing to carry out routine maintenance checks
  • Has the potential to cause long-term damage to premises and raises the risk of spread of diseases carried in water
• Loss of water supply

  • Indicate burst pipe or leak in main system
  • Due to failure in routine maintenance
  • Impacts key care and support activities, e.g. cleaning, cooking
• Other critical incidents

  • Faulty light switch or electrical appliance causing electricity to cut out
  • Power cuts in local area
  • Gas leak from faulty appliances can lead to fires and explosions
  • Bomb threat should be taken seriously
• Reporting of accidents

  • Legal requirement that records are kept even if they have refused treatment
  • What has to be recorded; name of person injured, date, time, place of injury/ illness
  • Details of injury/ illness
  • Treatment given, including what happened to person afterwards
  • All records must be signed
• Evacuation procedure

  Make sure all evacuation routes are kept clear at all times and are well lit and signposted
• ACT FAST

  A= Act fast, don’t panic, sound the alarm

  C= control and contain the fire only if you have been trained to do so

  T= telephone the fire brigade, provide them with details about you, your location the fire

  F= follow your emergency procedure to ensure safe evacuation of everyone

  A= assist in ensuring everyone is in place of safety

  S= Support others to ensure that no one stops or returns for personal belongings

  T= try to remain calm and wait until the fire brigade informs you it’s safe to re- enter
• When fire alarm sounds

  • All staff go to main fire panel
  • Other staff- turn off kitchen equipment/ appliances and then report to panel
  • A member of staff should be allocated to call the fire service
  • Manager sends staff members who were first to arrive in a pair to the affected fire zone
  • Send additional staff in pairs for evacuation of residents
• At the affected fire

  • Check rooms to see where the fire has started from
  • Shut doors that have opened so the fire doesn't spread
  • Staff need to reassure the residents in rooms that aren't affected
  • If they detect a fire in the room they need to call for help and remove the residents immediately
  • If detected they need to inform senior management immediately
  • Utilise personal emergency evacuation plans (PEEPS) where necessary
• Others

  • Ensure visitors are evacuated to the assembly point
  • Kitchen staff should turn off appliances and leave the kitchen in safe condition
  • Domestic staff- turn off appliances and report to fire alarm panel.
• Arrival of fire service

  • Manager to tell officer in charge of fire service what the incident involves and location
  • Take instructions from fire service on whether to change evacuation procedure
  • Move residents affected by the incident to a safe area
  • Using PEPPS to consider relocation of person if necessary
  • Account for all staff and residents
• Follow up review of critical incidents and emergencies

  • Casualties, witnesses and those who respond to such incidents may need counselling
  • Support services must be offered to everyone involved and their health and welfare will be monitored
  • Implementing actions and recommendations from findings of reviews will also form part of the follow up review process.
• Report to relevant authorities

  • Employers must report to local health protection unit if there are; outbreaks of infection, changes in resistance to antibiotics, occurrences of notifiable diseases
  • RIDDOR requires that work related injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences are reported to HSE or local authority
• Responsibilities of a first aider

  • assess for danger
  • keeping themselves and the area safe
  • prevent further harm
  • maintain respect and dignity
  • get help
  • stay with the individual until help arrives
• Role of the first aider- give someone help, while making sure that they and everyone else involved are safe and they don't make the situation worse
• First Aid- The aims

  • P- preserve life
  • P- prevent situation from worsening
  • P- promote recovery
• First Aid

  • First priority is to make sure the airway is open and to check if the patient is breathing
  • If this is okay then you can assess the patient for bleeding and fractures
• DRS ABC

  D- danger checks- look around you and check for any risks or signs of danger

  R- response assessment- assess all casualties and check if they are conscious

  S- shout for help- call and ambulance or get someone else to do it- ask them to come back and tell you when it's done

  A- airway checks- check the casualties airway is not blocked.

  B- breathing checks- check the casualty is breathing normally. If so, place in recovery position. If not start CPR but only if you have been trained to do so. Check help is on the way.

  C- circulation checks- continue to montior the casualty.