Health and safety: Hospital cleaners and other workers in the frontline of the fight against infection fear for their safety due to the sloppy disposal of needles and human waste. Many also say they have received no health and safety training, according to a new survey.
Old cleaning equipment and poor quality protective clothing are also of concern, according to research by Ralaheen Ltd, commissioned by Siptu and set to be published soon.
At the time of the survey, 90 per cent of cleaners, porters, nurses' aides and catering staff had received no health and safety training. Many were fearful of training opportunities due to literacy problems and nearly four out of 10 claimed they were bullied at work.
The majority viewed their promotional opportunities as non-existent, although many were mature, married women supporting families.
Early school-leavers, who had left school before age 15, comprised 42 per cent of female and 31 per cent of male hospital workers. Only 20 per cent of males and females had remained in school until age 18. Men and women who had left school early were reluctant to pursue training due to "the negative attitudes of others".
A lack of training was cited as a contributing factor to the MRSA epidemic by an audit of hygiene standards in acute hospitals last summer. Half of the 54 hospitals investigated had poor hygiene standards and fewer than one in 10 were rated as good.
"Hospital work among non-officer grades tends to be invisible in health policy," states the report, Equality for You: Filling the Knowledge Gap - a research into barriers facing low-paid women workers in the hospitals of Dublin.
Eight out of 10 cleaners are women, 40 per cent of these are aged 45-64 and 40 per cent left school between the ages of 13 and 15 years.
Wages for women hospital workers are little more than €10 per hour, while males earn closer to €11 per hour due to segregation of the sexes in jobs.
While public anxiety about the MRSA bug has put hospital cleaners in the spotlight - from hospital workers' point of view, fear of injury, bullying and violence are common reasons for job-related stress, the Ralaheen survey stated.
In one hospital, catering workers were forced to endure the heat and fumes of a kitchen in which windows had been nailed shut.
One in four hospital workers had been injured on the job in the eight hospitals surveyed. Respondents gave accounts of needle stick injuries, assaults by patients, burns, back injuries and broken wrists. Eighty two per cent of workers experienced stress and more than half suffered stress-related symptoms, yet only 11 per cent had received stress counselling.
Ward attendants, catering assistants and nurses' aides - most of whom are women - complained bitterly of the hazards they experienced.
"Cleaning a theatre floor with a cloth, I got a needle stick injury from a needle in the cloth," said one.
Another complained: "I was making the bed and put my hand straight onto the needle."
"Some nurses are very careless with needles and leave them on trays that come back to the kitchen, and people can't see them," said another.
Cutbacks in the health service, overcrowded wards and a lack of space in which to manoeuvre and properly store equipment also contributed to the stressful environment.
One worker described "too much pressure put on and so few staff. Bad atmosphere caused by management. People are getting stressed by the workload and atmosphere." Another said: "Wards can get quite busy and you have six nurses asking you to do things at the one time."
Gender-segregation in hospitals means that 96 per cent of nurses' aides are women, while 96 per cent of hospital porters are men.
In the general European population, female workers are more likely to experience violence. In Irish hospitals it is the males who are more at risk. They reported incidents of violence from members of the public, as well as abusive and degrading language - some of it coming from bosses.
Men were also more likely to be exposed to hospital waste and strenuous lifting.
