Explain The Hazards In The Physical Environment Of Service Users

In the physical environment there are many potential hazards that can cause harm to elderly service users. The physical environment includes everything that surrounds the service user for example lighting, the air or the temperature. All these things affect the elderly service user in many ways. Beds can be an example of a possible hazard as if it is not comfortable for the service user it can then become a health hazard as it may cause back pain for the service user especially if the service user already suffers from a medical condition such as arthritis. Another hazard in the physical environment is hoists, hoists are used to transfer those individuals who cannot physically move and hoists are used to move the elderly person from one place to another.
Hoists can prove to be a hazard as staff members should be appropriately and correctly trained to use the hoist in order to safely transport the patient as if a staff member doesn’t pick up the hoist correctly, then it may potentially harm the patient as if the hoist falls down then the patient would hurt themselves alongside the staff may get into trouble with the practise manager.
Another point to consider is that if an elderly patient’s room is small and is insufficient, it poses a risk to the elderly service user as it will disallow the patient, if they can to move accessibly around the room for example if they want to go see the view from the window but are limited due to the amount of space in the room. So if they are unable to move accessibly around the room, then it would show that they are confined to their bed because of limited