By Rebecca Brown & Arielle Hebert, Local 115 OH&S Committee,
United Nurses of Alberta
An Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) concern can take many forms: slips, trips, falls, violence, hazardous exposures, injuries, psychological harm and so on. The list is pretty extensive. When you suffer harm at work it is imperative that you report it for your sake, for the sake of your colleagues, and for the safety of future workers in the workplace. So, what happens when you discover an OHS concern? The fol- lowing is based on a real case and is used with permission, although names have been changed.
Sarah discovered that a medication that was be- ing mixed on her unit carried a reproductive risk. She brought the issue up with her manager as there were staff on the unit who had experienced some problems that could be related to that medication. She also filed a WCB report. Sarah and the staff were told mixing the medication was a minor risk and that everything was fine as long as they wore gloves to mix the medication. At that time Sarah didn’t file an OHS concern because she felt the is- sue had been resolved.
Fast forward two years. Sarah found out that the information they had been given was not correct. The medication was a serious reproductive risk and all other AHS sites had the medication mixed in a pharmacy under the bio hood; a process used for high risk medications. At that point Sarah alerted the UNA who directed her concern to the OHS committee. Sarah was assigned a committee member who contacted her to discuss the concern. She was able to provide all the information in a timely fashion and the committee member was able to quickly file the UNA OHS form online. This form gets sent to the Local and the main OHS office at UNA headquarters in Edmonton. As this was a very serious concern, the provincial OHS team were there to assist the committee in this investigation. The committee member also contacted Sarah’s manager to discuss the concern and to start working on how to resolve the issue quickly. As the problem involved a medication, the manager of pharmacy was also contacted for their input.
The concern was discussed at the next OHS Local meeting and, once all the information was collated, put forward to the Joint Workplace Health and Safety Committee (which meets every month to discuss and try to rectify all OHS concerns across the site.) This case was resolved by the pharmacy agreeing to mix the medication under the bio hood as was the practice across all other sites at AHS.
Any of the nurses on the unit who are of reproductive age also have to don appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) when spiking the medication and when removing a patient’s IV. The medication is now listed in the unit Hazard Identification Assessment and Control (HIAC) document and labelled as a reproductive risk. Thanks to Sarah’s vigilance in reporting and the work of the OHS committee, the staff can now administer this medication in a safe manner.
Did you know that every workplace in AHS has a HIAC folder which details all the known and potential hazards in the area and has a framework for how they are supposed to be dealt with? The HIAC is a working document and should be updated after every OHS concern. One of the questions we will ask if you report a concern to the OHS Commit- tee is if there is a framework for the OHS concern you have in the HIAC, and if so, was the correct procedure followed? Take some time and locate your HIAC folder and see what it contains. Check for when it was last updated and see if it should be revised. Anyone working in the area has the author- ity to make notes in the HIAC regarding OHS.
If you need to contact the Union to discuss an OHS concern you can:
Go to UNA.ab.ca and click on the OHS icon on the main page
Go on the UNA app and click on the “report a concern” on the upper right hand side
Pick-up the phone and call Local 115 directly on 403-670-9960
The OHS committee has been successful in resolving many issues over the years. Of course some- times things have to go further, but your Local will always have someone there to support you.
As per the current Alberta Occupational Health and Safety Act remember your three basic rights:
• Right to know what hazards and dangers you may encounter and need to be trained on
• Right to participate in the process of identify- ing and controlling hazards
• Right to refuse unsafe work with full protection from reprisal
As Registered Nurses we also have an obligation under this act to report to the Employer or your supervisor anything unsafe or harmful in our workplace.
In the New Year members of your Local 115 OHS committee will be coming around FMC with a coffee cart to introduce ourselves and answer questions you may have about what we do. Look out for us and stop for a chat.
Your safety matters!