Skip to main content

Safety Across the Lifespan: A Guide to Injury Prevention Study Guide

This guide provides comprehensive information on patient safety and injury prevention tailored to various developmental stages. It covers essential safety protocols for newborns, infants, toddlers, preschoolers, school-aged children, adolescents, young adults, middle-aged adults, and older adults. Key areas include environmental modifications, hazard mitigation, and education to prevent harm. The guide also touches upon patient safety in clinical contexts and the role of healthcare professionals

Save this study guide to your study set

Sign up free

Your learning path

Safety, Emergency Response, and Restraint Management

Fire Safety and Emergency Preparedness for PSWs

Learn Ontario-specific fire safety requirements, prevention strategies, and emergency procedures including RACE and PASS methods to protect yourself and clients.

  • Ontario Fire Code
  • Occupational Health & Safety Act (OHSA)
  • Fire prevention, detection, suppression, and egress
  • Common causes of fire in home care
  • R.A.C.E. method
  • P.A.S.S. method
  • Smoke alarms and Carbon Monoxide (CO) alarms
  • Evacuation procedures for mobility impairments
  • Oxygen use safety
  • The 4 P's of prevention

Violent Patients and Code White Response

Code White refers to an emergency response for a violent person within hospital or health care agency boundaries.

  • Code White
  • Emergency response
  • Violent situations
  • Verbal de-escalation techniques
  • Chemical restraint
  • Physical restraint
  • 911 emergency protocols

Physical Restraints in Healthcare Practice

Assessment and prevention strategies for restraint-free environments include de-escalation interventions, crisis management techniques, and analyzing behavior tracking instruments.

  • physical restraints
  • restraint-free environments
  • assessment and prevention
  • de-escalation interventions
  • crisis management techniques
  • predisposing and precipitating factors
  • behavior tracking instruments
  • Patient Restraints Minimization Act

Best Practice Guidelines for Restraints

Best Practice Guidelines regarding monitoring, releasing, and exploring effective alternatives to restraints for residents.

  • Prevention Strategy
  • De-escalation plan
  • Monitoring frequency
  • Repositioning requirements
  • Risk for injury
  • Cognitive impairment
  • Predisposing risk factors
  • Responsive behaviours
  • Cognitive changes
  • Increasing dependence

Understanding Physical Chemical and Environmental Restraints

Healthcare providers must understand physical chemical and environmental measures used to control the physical or behavioural activity of a person.

  • Physical restraints
  • Chemical restraints
  • Environmental restraints
  • Psychiatric conditions responsive behaviours
  • Sensory impairments
  • De-escalation plan
  • Environmental factors
  • Health Care Regulation Ontario prohibitions

Safety Across the Lifespan

This lecture explores patient safety, prevention of harm, and injury prevention for newborns, infants, toddlers, preschoolers, school-age children, and adolescents.

  • patient safety
  • prevention of harm
  • injury prevention
  • newborn and infant safety
  • toddler safety
  • preschooler safety
  • school-age child safety
  • adolescent safety

Physiology, Assessment, and Management of Pain

Physiology and Management of Pain

Explore the physiology of pain, including transduction, transmission, perception, and modulation, and the care of the patient experiencing pain.

  • Acute, Chronic, and Cancer pain
  • Visceral, Somatic, and Neuropathic pain
  • Nociceptors and Neurotransmitters
  • Transduction of thermal, chemical, and mechanical stimuli
  • A-delta and C-fiber transmission
  • Perception and the cerebral cortex
  • Inhibitory neurotransmitters and endogenous opioids
  • Modulation and protective reflex response
  • Gate Control Theory
  • Autonomic nervous system responses
  • Sympathetic and Parasympathetic effects

Types of Pain and Environmental Comfort

Pain types, including acute, chronic, somatic, visceral, neuropathic, radiating, referred, phantom limb, and cancer pain, and how environmental conditions affect client comfort and well-being.

  • Acute pain
  • Chronic pain
  • Somatic pain
  • Visceral pain
  • Neuropathic pain
  • Radiating pain
  • Referred pain
  • Phantom limb pain
  • Cancer pain
  • Environmental conditions
  • Client comfort
  • Psychological well-being

Pain Assessment Tools and Scales

  • PQRST Pain Assessment
  • Neonatal Pain Scale
  • FLACC Behavioral Pain Assessment Scale
  • Premature Infant Pain Profile
  • Pain Assessment in Advanced Dementia (PAINAD) scale
  • Abbey Pain Scale

PSW Role in Client Pain Management

Personal Support Workers focus on non-pharmacological interventions, observation, and positioning to improve comfort and enhance quality of life.

  • Non-pharmacological interventions
  • Pain management through positioning
  • Neutral spine support
  • Pressure relief techniques
  • Distraction techniques
  • Environmental stimuli
  • Cognitive exercises
  • Mindfulness
  • Observation of non-verbal cues
  • Documentation
  • Emotional support

Managing Pain, Sleep, and Rest

Factors affecting sleep and rest, interventions to promote sleep, and the role of PSWs in pain and sleep management.

  • Environmental factors affecting sleep
  • Physical and physiological factors affecting sleep
  • Psychological factors affecting sleep
  • Lifestyle and habit factors affecting sleep
  • Sleep hygiene practices
  • Environment optimization
  • Dietary adjustments for sleep
  • Insomnia
  • Sleep deprivation
  • Sleepwalking (Somnambulism)
  • Sleep apnea
  • Restless legs syndrome
  • PSW role in pain management
  • Non-pharmacological comfort
  • Distraction and relaxation techniques
  • Monitoring and reporting pain

Make it your own.

Keep these readings and topics in a new study set, or add them to one you already use.