Interview question work place health and safety

[xxlornaxx]

If you had a job interview question that asked you to highlight work place health and safety issues that were specific to inpatient mental health what would you say?

thanks

[CaptainR]

I don't know anything about Mental Health or medical issues, but coming from a highly regulated H&S culture in my work I'd say you would approach it methodically by making a list of all the risks (dangers and hazards) that you may expect to encounter, then consider how likely those are to happen and finally look at what measures are in place or could be put in place to decrease the risk. If you already have experience in Mental Health then you would be expected to draw on your past experiences and probably explain the health and safety procedures you've encountered before, if you haven't got experience then the interview panel should know that, so will be looking to see you using initiative to anticipate the health and safety issues that you might expect.

[Suzukiscottie]

Generic answer - Identify risks, eliminate or manage those risks as required.

[xxlornaxx]

Thank you and if I had to give an example of one is it just anything that causes a hazard or risk to people's safety? Is that what work place health and safety is? Could it be risk of violence or bullying or cuts or something? Or does health and safety deal with specific risks?

[newjez]

Thank you and if I had to give an example of one is it just anything that causes a hazard or risk to people's safety? Is that what work place health and safety is? Could it be risk of violence or bullying or cuts or something? Or does health and safety deal with specific risks?

 

 

Stress is a common one.

[CaptainR]

Thank you and if I had to give an example of one is it just anything that causes a hazard or risk to people's safety? Is that what work place health and safety is? Could it be risk of violence or bullying or cuts or something? Or does health and safety deal with specific risks?

 

The general health and safety procedures would normally cover broad topics, so probably as you say Violence from a patient would be in that scope. More specific tasks could also be covered, such as injections or an individual patient/condition which might need to have extra precautions in place.

 

Many of the 'control measures' or precautions are things that you would consider as common sense, but sometimes the simplest of things can be overlooked. So if you were to expand on the violence topic and then look at why it may occur (what kind of mental issues could result in violence), its likelihood and then the precautions (control measures) that you would put in place to safeguard employees, and after that you look again to see whether you would feel safe to perform your job with those control measures in place.

 

In this interview question, I suspect they want you to consider all of the major risks that you can think of and then expand on it using the process i've highlighted above.

[ali]

Thank you and if I had to give an example of one is it just anything that causes a hazard or risk to people's safety? Is that what work place health and safety is? Could it be risk of violence or bullying or cuts or something? Or does health and safety deal with specific risks?

 

Mention that there would be a risk register. An example would be the removal of ligature points in bathrooms, patients room to reduce the potential for hanging. Mention what the principles of Occ health and safety are (look up the act and quote that) - responsibilities of employers and employees etc.,