Scenario 8.3: Emergency Room Shutdown

question 174

Multiple Choice

Scenario 8.3: Emergency Room Shutdown
On Saturday,February 28,2013,Ciara Michal,the human resource manager at Strathcona Hospital,made a decision to shut down the hospital's emergency room.A second registered nurse had refused to work a 12-hour shift due to fears concerning the spread and infection of several communicable diseases.Patients had to be directed to another hospital,260 km away.Michal had spent the last several hours fielding questions and concerns from hospital staff,the public,and government representatives about the hospital emergency room closure.Several additional health and safety concerns were brought to her attention,pointing to a larger problem.
Emergency room doctors and nurses working at Lochview Hospital are particularly concerned about the risk of patients contracting C.difficile virus,as the incidents of infection had increased 300% in two years.There had been two recent needle-stick injuries: one involving a rushed emergency room cleaning staff person and the other,a practicum nursing student.These incidents posed both physical and emotional threats related to the hepatitis B virus,the hepatitis C virus,and HIV.All emergency room staff,as well as paramedics and emergency social services staff,are concerned about the shortage of hospital beds and the makeshift system of creating an overflow ward in the hallways and cafeteria.Hallway beds don't have the safety equipment available,leading to mistakes and poor care.Extension cords run across the floors in order to reach electrical outlets.Patients with acute problems are seen in chairs,and some are tucked way into corners where they cannot be observed.These stressful working conditions are having an adverse impact on emergency room health-care workers.Over 10% of the emergency room staff are on extended stress-related leaves.
-Please refer to Scenario 8.3.What major health hazard category would stress be classified under?

• A)physical agent
• B)biohazard
• C)ergonomic
• D)psychosocial

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Definitions:

Calcitonin

A hormone produced by the thyroid gland that lowers blood calcium levels by activating osteoblasts.

Thyroid Gland

An endocrine gland, consisting of irregularly spheroid follicles, lying in front and to the sides of the upper part of the trachea, in a horseshoe shape, with two lateral lobes connected by a narrow central portion, the isthmus; occasionally an elongated offshoot, the pyramidal lobe, passes upward from the isthmus in front of the trachea. It is supplied by branches from the external carotid and subclavian arteries, and its nerves are derived from the middle cervical and cervicothoracic ganglia of the sympathetic system. It secretes thyroid hormone and calcitonin.

Steroidal

Relating to or characterized by the presence of steroids, which are a large class of organic compounds with a characteristic molecular structure.

Cell Membrane

The outer limit of a cell that is thin and selectively permeable. It controls the movement of substances into and out of the cell.