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(heart monitor beeps) Now let's take a closer look at establishing a written policy as it relates to ergonomics and proper lifting. You know, there are all kinds of templates available for any business owner who wants to make sure that they're following the latest OSHA guidelines when establishing a written policy for any safety program, let alone for ergonomics or proper lifting and handling of persons. However, if you are a little bit behind the gun and you've got to make a written policy there's a very simple way to at least get a good-faith policy written out so that your employees have something to follow while you're establishing a more formal written policy. I like to use the simple who, what, when, where, why and how method of establishing a written policy. Let's break those down for example. The Who: who does this policy apply to? This is going to become part of your analysis for your health and safety program. As you walk through your employment, you're going to look at different employees, the job roles that they fulfill, and the different areas of risk they might work within, and around, every day. What: What procedures should be outlined for safety? Look at their different job tasks. What is it that they're doing that puts them at risk? What tools might they be more apt to use that would protect them from a musculoskeletal disorder? When: Employees need to know when to use these procedures. When do they apply? When should they be thinking about them? And when should they get training? Where: Where do they apply? Do they apply only at work? Do they apply on outings? Do they apply in a van when shuttling persons to and fro? Why: Why might be the biggest question in the written policy and sometimes finds a great spot at the very beginning of every written policy. I've found that if employees understand why they should be implementing the safety program, they're more apt to follow it more closely. In the "why" we should be describing those theories and benefits that I spoke of earlier in this program. It's about your employees and your customers. It's about your business, its about making sense of safety. And its about living safely, working safely and having a healthy organization. How: this final facet can be tricky because there are always those situations in a workplace that sometimes fall out of your normal protocol. How do I move a patient up in bed when the bed is too big for me to use proper lifting techniques? How do I lift a patient off the floor if we have devices that only go down so far? How do I call for help? How do I analyze new procedures to find out what safety steps should be put in place? How do I contact my employer or my supervisor when I need to go over a policy, report an injury or a report an unsafe practice? These are some of the ways that you can establish a written policy that can either be permanently put in place, or can hold that place until a more formal and thorough policy can be written or revised.
OSHA provides several templates to follow. Use the who, what, when, where, and why questions to develop a policy. An example of questions to ask when creating a written policy include: who is at risk, what job functions are most risky, when should employees get trained, where do ergonomic principles apply, why should employees implement a safety program, how can a safety program be implemented in the workplace?