Change In Nursing Care

Many nurses and healthcare workers within healthcare frequently place themselves at a high-risk for exposure to cleaners, floor strippers, pesticides, disinfectants, chemotherapy and many other pollutants (Safe Chemicals, Nursing and Public Health, 2016). Exposure to these chemicals continues to impact the health of healthcare workers in various areas such as cancer, reproductive and development disorders, neurologic diseases, and airborne illnesses. The American Nurses Association (ANA) continues to improve regulations for safer chemicals, advocating for nurses and healthcare workers for the right to know their chemical exposure and to make the environment safer to work. Many nurses spent at least 12 hours within their work environment breathing in many pollutants without the opportunity to enjoy fresh air outside in addition to caring for patients with many illnesses that may yield them to additional toxins. The ANA partnered with other …show more content…
The fundamental rationale for this change in nursing comes as a result of nursing shortage, nurse to patient ratio and work injuries performing duties. The Safe Patient Handling (SPH) program helps to decrease injuries to nurses and other healthcare workers as well as improve safe patient care delivery and reduce work-related injury (Safe Patient Handling Movement, 2016). The SPH is currently only in five states and the ANA plans to expand this on a federal and state level. Nursing care has transitioned from nurses lifting patients to educating the patients’ on how to lift and move themselves. Many hospitals and nursing homes purchased lifting equipment and provided the necessary education to their staff to reduce the health risk associated with the hazardous injuries associated with improper patient