1. Reading drug labels and information sheets |
Age related factors: |
2. Reading other print communications |
▪ Deteriorating vision |
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Exacerbated by: |
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▪ Poor light at night, environmentally friendly light bulbs |
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▪ Small print (eg. drug labels, information sheets, ampoules, imprints on foil packs) |
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▪ Colour of print (eg. orange or red writing on ampoules) |
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▪ Reading through plastic sleeves |
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▪ Losing glasses - continually taking them on and off |
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▪ Increased computer work - associated eye strain |
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▪ Size of phones, keypads, text messages |
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3. Administering medications |
Age-related factors specific to these tasks - |
Including: |
▪ Reduced strength in hands and wrists |
▪ Cracking ampoules |
▪ Pain in hands and wrists |
▪ Administering IV medications and removing IV lines |
▪ Fine motor co-ordination reduced |
▪ Openning packages - lids, jars, plastic overwrap, boxes with tape, dressing packs, seals, child proof packages, IV fluid bags |
▪ Reduced dexterity |
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▪ Increased cramping of fingers |
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Exacerbated by: |
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▪ Smaller, more secure packaging |
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▪ Environmentally friendly gloves |
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4. Hearing in the hospital ward or unit |
Age related factors: |
In particular: |
▪ Deteriorating hearing |
▪ Hearing patients |
▪ For some, noise induced hearing loss |
▪ Hearing at the work- station |
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- Drug orders, other instructions and conversation over the phone |
Exacerbated by: |
- Other staff |
▪ Accents of some non-English-speaking staff |
- Alarms and distinguishing between them |
▪ High background noise level of wards with open office |
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▪ Distractions - constancy of phones ringing, others talking |
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▪ Anywhere where there's a crowd |
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▪ Speech of younger staff |
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5. Manual handling - lifting and/or moving patients and equipment |
Age-related factors: |
In particular: |
▪ Musculo-skeletal changes affecting strength, muscle tone, flexibility |
▪ Examining patients |
▪ Stability and balance |
▪ Dressing patients - shoes & socks, adjusting clothes/attire |
▪ Increased pain, stiffness (+/- osteoarthritis) in: |
▪ Holding limbs and draping surgical patients |
- Joints - hips, knees, hands, feet |
▪ Pushing/pulling equipment - eg. beds, chairs |
- Neck and shoulders |
▪ Showering patients |
- Back |
▪ Toileting patients in difficult areas |
▪ Manoeuvring more difficult when older; fuller figures of both patients and staff |
▪ Squatting or kneeling - for procedures, picking things up off floor |
Exacerbated by: |
▪ Doing dressings |
▪ Manoeuvrability and maintenance of equipment |
▪ Making beds, adjusting bed heights |
▪ Workplace ergonomics and design of facilities (old) |
▪ Walking up and down steps |
▪ Narrow bathrooms and doors don't allow room for lifting aids |
▪ Transporting objects, records |
▪ No shelves or poor position of shelves |
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▪ Unco-operative patients |
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▪ All-in-one gowns - difficult for examining patients |
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6. Shift work |
Age-related factors: |
In particular: |
▪ Tiredness, especially after lunch |
▪ 10 hr shifts, longer shifts, more shifts, double shifts, early shifts, split shift |
▪ Reduced stamina from physical demands on body |
▪ Rigid roster |
▪ Longer recovery periods - "takes 2 days to get over a double shift" |
▪ On call |
▪ Lack of sleep, disturbed sleep patterns, "waking at 3 am" |
▪ Long working days |
▪ More anxious, not dealing with lack of sleep as well as before |
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▪ Strong work ethic of older workers - "if you were younger, you would just go off" |
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Exacerbated by: |
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▪ Inflexible work hours |
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▪ Lack of staff - "can't go off sick, no one to replace you" |
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▪ Unable to take time out to recover |
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▪ Poor recovery after inconsistent shifts; insufficient rest times between rotations and being on call |
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▪ Some older workers more resistant to shift changes |
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7. Long periods of standing, walking or sitting |
Age-related factors: |
In particular: |
▪ Manoeuvring more difficult when older, fuller figures of both patients and staff |
▪ Sitting down for long periods eg. data entry |
▪ More difficult to get mobile quickly after sitting, due to stiffness and back problems |
▪ Standing/walking, being on your feet for long periods or all day. eg. in operating theatre |
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▪ Unnecessary walking |
Exacerbated by: |
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▪ Past surgical procedures |
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▪ Design of facilities - long distances to medication rooms, utility rooms |
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▪ Running phones up and down to patients, "have to leave what you are doing" |
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8. Midwifery |
Age-related factors: |
In particular: |
▪ More difficult to lean, bend, stand for long periods now older |
▪ Delivery of babies - long periods of: |
▪ Back pain and stiffness |
- Leaning over beds |
▪ (As above for manual handling)
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- Bending |
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- Being on your feet |
Exacerbated by: |
- On floor with mother |
▪ New options/positions for birthing & birthing chairs |
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▪ Presentations now more complex, with more requirements |
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9. Physiotherapy |
Age-related factors: |
In particular: |
▪ Back pain and stiffness |
▪ Patient exercises - bending/reaching over beds leading to back-strain |
▪ (As above for manual handling)
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Exacerbated by: |
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▪ Allied health workers in rural areas are often sole practitioners with no help |