Ice-Breaker on Home Care Occupational Hazards
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Goals: The goals of this activity are for participants to meet each other, to discuss their perceptions of risks, exposures and hazards, and prioritize the hazards that they believe are the most important to address.
Objectives: Participants will:
- describe their name and experience in home care.
- list the risks, exposures and hazards that they believe are most important.
- explain why they chose these hazards.
- introduce their partner to the group.
- vote for the hazards that they believe need to be addressed by the health and safety program.
Time: 1 Hour
Materials needed: 3 x 5 cards, pens, flip chart, markers, voting stickers
How to conduct the activity: (Note: Underlined portions are instructions to participants.)
The facilitator will welcome participants and introduce the activity. The facilitator will ask participants to write out at least three hazards that they believe cause injury or illness for home care workers on 3 X 5 cards. Participants will also be asked to give a reason for their choices. After participants finish writing they will then form pairs, introduce each other and describe their two most important hazards to each other. After about 10 minutes the facilitator will ask for one pair to begin. The first person will introduce their partner and will state the hazards that this person identified. The facilitator will scribe these responses. In this way the whole group will be introduced and a list will be created. After everyone is introduced the facilitator will ask if anyone wants to share other hazards that have not already been listed. In this way a complete list of hazards will be written. The facilitator will give each person 4 large dots and ask the participants to vote for the hazards that should be addressed by the health and safety program. Participants can give all dots to one hazard if they want. At the end of this the facilitator will count the dots and rank the hazards in terms of what the group voted for.
Summary: Managers and employees can describe the hazards they face at work. A discussion about hazards helps participants clarify and understand the nature and severity of the hazards and exposures. Voting and prioritizing hazards can be very beneficial to program planning and employee involvement in creating a health and safety program.
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