And Their Families For The Short And Long Term
The problem of assaults on medical workers may be at an all-time high -- and the nurses in Minneapolis metro area have had enough.
The Minnesota Nurses Association is negotiating new contract terms with several metro hospitals. One key provision that the nurses want to see is better protection against workplace violence and assaults.
While any Minnesota worker in any environment faces some risks, there are jobs out there where employees are more prone to work-related injuries or even death.
Analyzing information originally gathered by the United States government, one group has identified the ten deadliest jobs in the country, at least as of 2017. While some of these careers are among the usual suspects when it comes to unsafe working environments, others may come as a bit of a surprise.
As this blog has reported before, our state has a relatively good track record for workplace safety, at least in some respects. The good news for residents of the greater Twin Cities area is that the state continues to improve in its effort to prevent workplace accidents.
According to numbers reported by the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, which among other things administers the workers' compensation program, as of 2017, our state enjoyed its lowest ever rate of workplace accidents. Specifically, there were 3.3 reportable work-related illnesses and injuries per 100 full-time workers in this state, a drop from 3.4 in 2016.
Back injuries at work can be very serious because you use your back for almost everything you do. It is imperative that work places have protocol for reducing the risk of incidents that can lead to this. It is easy to think that the workers should be the ones who are responsible for safety, but the responsibility actually falls on the employers.
No matter what industry a company falls under, employers and employees can benefit from knowing some information about what the more common causes of back injuries are. This helps them ensure that they have adequate protocol to address the issues.
Workers in the Minnesota area might not realize it, but it is actually fairly likely that, on a given day, they will either get hurt at work themselves or may witness a significant workplace accident. According to an analysis by the National Safety Council, someone in this country gets hurt at work at an average rate of 7 seconds. The Council arrived at this number by dividing the approximately 4.5 million work-related injuries that happen annually.
Many of these accidents are more than just minor cuts or scrapes that can be treated at the scene. In fact, the Safety Council estimated that, as of 2016, workers were missing 104 million days of work annually due to various injuries. The most common types of injuries that kept people away from work included bad cuts and scrapes, generalized pain and sprains and the like.
Most people who get hurt at work don't have any long-term consequences. They may miss a few days of work for medical treatment, but otherwise the impact of the injury will be minimal. For other people, the impact of a workplace injury could be long-lasting.
For some people, despite their best efforts, the injuries they suffer because of their profession will ultimately keep them from continuing to practice that profession. In fact, accumulated injuries, such as repetitive motion injuries, can also have long-term consequences despite lacking a single event that leads to the injury.
When a worker gets hurt in a construction accident, it may be hard for that worker, or the family, to know to whom to turn in order to get compensation. In theory, the construction worker's own employer should have worker's compensation available to cover the injured worker's medical bills and lost wages.
Unfortunately, though, some construction outfits choose to ignore this law. In other cases, a worker may find he or she is without benefits because of an honest mistake or a misunderstanding of Minnesota law.
Many construction sites and other workplaces include trenches, that is, narrow tunnels in the earth that workers dig out with heavy equipment. Trenches are commonplace at many different types of Minnesota worksites. For instance, workers use them to lay or repair sewage, water, gas and other underground utility lines. A trench may also be needed when workers are building or repairing a road or doing other work that requires access underground.
According to a union that represents many people in the Twin Cities area who work with trenches, the biggest danger associated with a trench is the possibility the trench will collapse. In addition to an immediate and hard blow to the head, a collapse can lead to a crush injury or even death by suffocation.
A man from the northern part of our state, who gave of his time to coach lacrosse and referee soccer games for a nearby school system, has suffered critical injuries because of a work-related accident. As of the latest report, the man was able to breathe with the help of a machine, but was comatose, suggesting he may have suffered a severe brain injury.
Initial reports were that the man fell about 20 feet from a conveyor. He was working at a lumberyard at the time of the accident, and rescuers transported him to a hospital in Duluth.
Workers' compensation insurance is an important part of the system we have to protect the rights and safety of workers. It offers compensation and access to medical care when a person suffers an injury while on the job. However, these insurance policies are also in place to protect employers from frivolous lawsuits. In many cases, the insurers that provide them prefer to protect their bottom line over protecting injured workers.
When you experience a work-related injury, it is wise to look at your circumstances carefully to ensure that your workers' compensation provider does not minimize your payout or refuse coverage that you should receive. This is particularly true when it comes to repetitive motion injuries and other ailments that develop slowly over time.
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