Safety needs

Safety needs
Safety – A fundamental health need
 According to Maslow, feeling safe is one of our fundamental human needs
 Virginia Henderson identified “Avoid environmental dangers and avoid injuring others”
as one of the 14 basic human needs of her need-based theory
 These theories are further supported by the South African constitution
Definition of concepts
 Safety:
 Care that minimises harm to patients and health care providers through both system
effectiveness and individual performance (Mogotlane, 2018)
 The state of being free from harm or danger (Craven et al, 2017)
 Medico-legal hazards: a threat to the safety of all persons within a health care setting,
including patients, personal and visitors
 Adverse event: an injury resulting from a medical intervention
Safety in the community and the environment
 Safety and prevention of accidents in the community is a move towards improving the
health of community
 The nurse is a custodian of safety as he/she plays a vital role in the detection of
environmental hazards and implementing programmes to deal with such hazards
 The nurse does this by
 Being involved in the community of which they are a part of
 Keeping up to date with current developments and happenings
 Taking an interest in any matter which poses an actual or potential threat (to that
community)
Types of environmental hazards
 Water pollution: in rural areas and informal settlements in urban areas where there is no
proper water provision, diseases such as cholera, typhoid, salmonella and hepatitis A
can be found in the water along with pollutants from surrounding industrial areas
 Air pollution (from industrial smog to smoke from cooking fires) causes conditions such
as asthma (especially in children)
 Industrial and medical waste
 Many industries dump their toxic waste in unsafe ways as the safe disposal process is
expensive and these companies want to keep their profits high
 Improper disposal of waste contaminates water supplies and soil
 The drinking water becomes unsafe to drink and plants grown in this soil may be
toxic to ingest
 Safe sex
 AIDS cannot be cured by antiretrovirals (ARVs)
 Many diseases can be transmitted through unprotected sex
 Road safety
 Motor vehicle accidents are a major contributor to death
 Promotion of safe driving habits and responsible road use is a very important
educational task
 Violence: domestic abuse, (child) abuse and rape are a few of many forms of violence
that occurs in communities and is a cause of physical and mental trauma

, Safety in the home
 Poorly designed dwellings for dwellings in a bad state of repair can pose safety hazards
for residents
 Open staircases without handrails/railings can be extremely dangerous
 Rough, uneven, slippery/wet floors or poorly secured rugs and carpets can cause elderly
patients to trip/fall
 Unsafe electrical appliances/connections, exposed wires and illegal electricity
connections are extremely dangerous and can cause fires
 Buildings which are fire hazards include shack dwellings as they are flimsy, made of
flammable material and are built close together
 Unsafe use of paraffin, gas, coal stoves, heaters as well as open or unprotected
fireplaces are fire hazards
 Poisonous substances such as paraffin are often kept in unmarked containers or are
decanted into empty cooldrink bottles – this is a hazard for curious children
 All hazardous/poisonous materials should either be locked away or kept out of reach
of children and should be kept in correctly marked containers
 Medicine cabinets should remain locked and kept out of reach of children
 Lack of supervision of children on homes often leads to a disaster
 E.g. burs, cuts or drownings
 Pool areas should be fenced/covered by a pool net when not in use
 Nurses should be able to give supervisory support