585661-Unit II: Article Critique- Occupational Safety and Health in Public Health Emergencies: A Manual For Protecting Health Workers and Responders
585661-Unit II: Article Critique
Emergency Support Function: Public Health and Medical Services
Introduction
Public Health and Medical Services or rather ESF#8 is a significant construct in the emergency support function that is mandated to identify and provide public health and medical needs to populations exposed to disasters and other medical emergencies. In the contemporary society, and the past decades, the world has witnessed a perverse dimension of both natural and human-made disasters ranging from terrorism to disease outbreaks to extreme climatic conditions such as storms, flooding, drought, and radiation emergencies. Management of these outbreaks is dependent on cooperation and integration of resources between different disaster management groups (DMGs) or organizations whose efforts are tailored towards prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery. Among these DMGs are the public health workers such as paramedics, psychologists, doctors, nurses, and emergency medical technicians. They work alongside others, such as firefighters, police officers, and anti-terrorist forces. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), events in the past years have posed a high risk of injuries and other threats to these emergency health responders which have had fatal results. For instance, the outbreak of the Ebola disease resulted in high mortality of healthcare workers, which impacted not only their families but also the health care sectors as a result of low labor turnover. In light of these increasing trends on vulnerabilities based on the public health service providers, the WHO mandated countries to consider this as their primary priority to ensure occupational safety and health (OSH) for this group. This article pursues the need for OSH implementation among various health organizations alongside risk factors posed to emergency health response workers and the relevant strategies to combat such risks.
Focused Function on Maintaining Safety
According to this World Health Organization (2018) manual, the intent is to assist healthcare organizations in recognizing the need for maintaining the safety of the healthcare response personnel and ensure they are well prepared for such events. It acknowledges that the significant duty of emergency responders is to prioritize public health, a factor that makes them ignore the safety of their health (World Health Organization, 2018). In this light, it identifies several risks associated with these individuals, such as infections from disease-outbreaks, chemical incident exposures, and radiation emergencies effects. These are a small segment of the dangers these individuals are prone to; therefore, this manual provides an insight into how such vulnerabilities may be evaded to ensure the safety of emergency health workers. The World Health Organization (2018) article focuses on experts and officials in emergency response centers and organizations whose responsibility is to ensure workers OSH and, most importantly, to countries prone to disasters such as in the case of US threats on domestic terrorism and flooding.
Practices and Policies on Safety
The article is based on the World Health Organization’s policies on maintaining the safety of emergency healthcare workers. It provides insights on management approaches to be adopted by various emergency response institutions that include planning organization, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of actions towards OSH in an accepted manner (World Health Organization, 2018). According to WHO, the management of OSH on emergency responders should be enacted based on its compatibility with the overall emergency response management that illuminates the component phases of disaster management such as preparedness, response, and recovery. The article states that team leaders on emergency operations should be trained on ways to develop an OSH management plan in the long run continuum of the organization’s internal control systems (World Health Organization, 2018). Further, it provides requirements and measures to be put in place before deployment of emergency response workers to various emergency fields. Firstly, the article dictates the need for selection of the appropriate healthcare personnel with the required competent and proficient capabilities to disseminate services needed at that particular emergency event. This incites the need to consider the mental and physical condition of the healthcare response teams to ensure that they are in the right terms to prevent further injuries or a compromise to public safety. At the same time, there is a need for training programs on OSH management during emergency events (World Health Organization, 2018). This enables them to be conversant with their security during the response process, the available hazards they are facing, skills to deal with health issues form such risks, and the need to report incidents of diseases acquired during the injuries. Umeda et al. (2020) indicate that it is empirical to understand that reporting is a withdrawal issue prevalent to most healthcare personnel, especially during this COVID-19 pandemic where they have been rendered the essential workers. Their efforts are too focused on ensuring public safety alongside that of their loved ones and adamant to their security (Umeda et al., 2020). In this light, this article provides real-time analysis and the need for observing OSH to these emergence response workers. More so, it explores the need for psychological support and counseling for emergency healthcare workers due to their high vulnerability to stress (World Health Organization, 2018). Being a disaster health responder exposes one to traumatic events, high level of work demand featured by limited resources, and interactions with highly stressed populations. Other studies indicate that emergency health workers at times demonstrate feelings of inefficiency and unpreparedness before deployment, which sometimes prompts psychological exhaustion (Umeda et al., 2020). In this light, they need to be provided with counseling services to enable them to manage these stresses and burnouts.
Conclusion
Emergency healthcare providers are a crucial segment of the emergency response teams in the current US society. About 40% of the ideal activities in the response phase are dependent on their proficiency and skills. In this light, there is a need to provide exemplary occupational safety and health to them to ensure they remain focused on their roles. This also helps them manage stress, which they acquire while in the field, as well as equipping them with extra capabilities to handle emergency issues presented by various hazards. The article on the WHO measures on OSH provides relevant insights to different team leaders on emergency response operations on how to ensure the safety of the healthcare providers.
References
Umeda, M., Chiba, R., Sasaki, M., Agustini, E. N., & Mashino, S. (2020). A literature review on psychosocial support for disaster responders: a qualitative synthesis with recommended actions for protecting and promoting the mental health of responders. International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(6), 2011.
World Health Organization. (2018). Occupational safety and health in public health emergencies: a manual for protecting health workers and responders.