If you have suffered a physical or psychological injury whilst working as a nurse or aged care worker, you can claim workers’ compensation for the loss caused by your injury.
Nurses, aged care workers and other healthcare professionals are at high risk of sustaining an injury during their work, with Community and Personal Service Workers being among the top three occupations with the highest rates of serious claims. (Australian Workers’ Compensation Statistics Report 2018-19). This can be attributed to a range of physical or psychological hazards that remain present in the Health Care and Social Assistance industry.
Its important that you understand your legal rights in the event you suffer an injury in the course of your employment.
Become Familiar with your Rights and Entitlements as a Nurse, Aged Care or Healthcare Worker
Three of the most common healthcare hazards seen in Queensland, Australia:
1) Injury due to lifting and moving patients
While a substantial amount of workplaces now enforce a ‘No Lifting Policy’ (instead, implementing the use of certain equipment and tools to aid in a lift when required), the risk of sustaining a physical injury remains. Musculoskeletal disorders and injuries (such as sprains or strains of muscles, disc and nerve injuries and acute muscle pain) are a common result of manual tasks like moving and lifting a patient, which can have ongoing effects and require ongoing treatment.
Musculoskeletal injuries can occur slowly - gradually worsening in effects over time due to repetitive movement or manual handling, or they can happen suddenly during unexpected strenuous activity. Nonetheless, if you have sustained an injury due to lifting or moving a patient, make sure to notify your workplace and seek medical assistance as soon as you can. Remember to keep a record of the time the incident took place and keep a copy of any medical records or appointment receipts if possible. These elements can aid in your claims process.
2) Slips, trips and falls
Even as the standards for housekeeping practices (such as using correct wet floor signs, correctly and promptly cleaning spills) are strongly encouraged and implemented in healthcare workplaces- slips, trips and falls remain a common occurrence.
If you’ve fallen and injured yourself at your workplace, it’s important to seek medical attention as soon as you can. Even if you show no sign of injury, it is still important to record the incident and monitor your symptoms as injuries do not always present themselves immediately.
3) Fatigue leading to psychological illness
It’s common for nurses or aged care workers to do shift work or night work. Working long hours can lead to mental stress and fatigue. Employers are obliged to have appropriate fatigue management procedures in place to guard against injuries to employees arising from high workloads.
Injured while working in healthcare?
If you’re a healthcare professional who has sustained any physical or psychological injury closely linked to your state of work and are looking for more information about receiving compensation, we are here to help.
No-Win-No-Fee Personal Injury Lawyers in Brisbane, Toowoomba, Roma Queensland
To find out more about our Personal Injury Lawyers, please follow the link below.
You can arrange a no-obligation consultation with us to discover more information as soon as you are ready. For matters regarding WorkCover and Worker’s Compensation, due to the tight time limits that apply, we recommend you obtain expert advice as soon as possible.