The physical environmentThe physical environment is the part of the human environment

The physical environment:The physical environment is the part of the human environment that includes purely physical factors. An example of hazards in the physical environment in a care home would be wet floor. The staff in the care home would be more likely to be affected by this hazard as they will be walking around more and they could be moving around quickly, unlike the elderly people in the home who are less mobile. However, the elderly will be affected by this also and they will also be more vulnerable to injuries if they slip on the wet floor and fall, if someone were to slip and fall they could scratch or bruise themselves or the injuries could be more detrimental and cause broken bones or fractures. Another hazard related to the physical environment in a care home is poor lighting, this will affect the visitors as they wont be familiar with the lighting as they may only visit once or twice a week or even less which implies that they will be the ones that are most affected, due to the poor lighting someone may misplace their step and trip over something as they cant see it properly, this could then lead to scratches or even head injuries, this can be very serious and could lead to the visitor or whoever is affected by the hazard having to go to hospital and this will be down to the poor lighting. Equipment: Equipment is a necessary item for a particular purpose, a potential hazard in regards to equipment in a care home would be a broken ECG machine. This is most likely to affect the elderly patients in the care home, the doctors and nurses will use this machine to read the ederly patients hearts so if this machine is broken then the elderly patients will be in harm’s way, this also affects the elderly as they will rely on this machine to help them stay alive and get better, the doctors will also rely on the machine to help the patient get better. Another potential hazard in the care home related to equipment could be a broken door lock. This is a hazard because some patients in the care home could have dementia, this means that if the scenario was to occur where a patient locked themselves in a room, if the door lock is broken or faulty this means the carers and doctors won’t be able to ge into the room to help and attend to the patient, in this time the patient could potentially harm themselves, this could then lead to them having to be taken to hospital which will cause more unsettling for the patient. The last potential hazard that may occur in the care home in regards to equipment could be an overloaded plug socket. This hazard will affect everyone in the building because if the plug socket is overloaded this means it could potentially explode leading to a cut of power across the whole care home. This could cause potential harm to patients and staff as there will be no/ dim lighting meaning it’s more likely someone will fall or trip this could then lead to more fatal injuries if the person was to take a hard fall and hit there head. Infections: A potential hazard in regards to infection in the care home would be an open wound. This will most likely affect the patients because if the patient has an open wound, as the patients are old they won’t be as aware therefore they will be more likely to touch some infectious bacteria that could cause the open wound to become infected. If this happens the patient will then need to go and get treatment for the infection. Leading on from this, the infected open wound could create other infects for the elderly patient and could potentially affect their blood. Another potential hazard that could occur in the care home in regards to infection is hoist, this is used to move patients around that are unable to walk themselves to the bathroom to clean themselves. If bacteria is left over on the hoist because its not been cleaned correctly and then another patient goes to use it then this could spread infections and illnesses from one patient to another which is dangerous for them as it may become serious and they may have to go to the hospital as they are more vulnerable as they are older.Substances: A substance is a matter which has uniform properties, A potential hazard in regards to substances in the old peoples home is using cleaning products. The use of cleaning products will mostly affect the staff in the care home, this is because the staff are the ones who will be using strong cleaning products to sterilise the elderly home. This could come as a hazard for staff as if they don’t wear a mask they could breathe in the harsh chemicals, this could cause them to feel ill or have a headache which may lead to the staff member having to take days off, also if the staff don’t wear gloves when handling the cleaning products and then go to prepare the patients food, this will affect the patients and could potentially cause them serious harm because they may be consuming harsh chemicals that are not to be eaten, this could cause patients to fall ill and if it becomes fatal they could possibly be sent to hospital. Working conditions: Working conditions refers to the working environment and all existing circumstances affecting labor in the workplace. A potential hazard related to working conditions in and elderly home would be broken heating. This is a hazard that is more than likely to affect everyone in the building, in summer the issue wouldn’t be as serious but if it was winter and the heating is broken in the care home this could cause patients to fall ill, especially the more elderly patients as they are more vulnerable and susceptible to illness, staff would also be negatively affected. A working condition hazard which most relates to care assistants is that they take their health and wellbeing into consideration when they finish their shift. This is because the majority of care assistants often work long hours throughout the day and then have to pass on information about the clients to the night shift worker. The care assistants will often be very tired as a result of this which means their ability to work will be negatively affected as they can make careless errors which turn into accidents. This presents a danger to the clients being cared for by the tired care assistant as they could give out the wrong medication or the wrong amount of medication.Working practices: