As a healthcare worker in New Jersey, you dedicate each working day to taking care of others. Whether you are a nurse, physician’s assistant, or nurse’s aide, you regularly expose yourself to the risk of illness and injury.
Each day, healthcare workers are injured in the course of their work, and must file workers’ compensation claims to assist in the payment of medical bills and lost wages. Do you know what kinds of injuries you are likely to face on the job?
Healthcare Workers: In the Business of Health, Often At the Expense of Their Own
The healthcare field is more than having book smarts and people skills—it is an extraordinarily physical job that requires individuals to be on their feet for extended periods of time, often moving patients and heavy medical equipment with little or no help. This exposes these individuals to the risk of serious injuries and illnesses, including:
- Back injuries, which are extremely common among healthcare workers. Often one of the leading causes of absence from work for nurses and aides, injuries like pinched nerves, sprains, strains, and slipped discs can cause serious and long-term damage.
- Fall injuries are very common in the healthcare field, since cleanliness is valued above all in medical facilities. Clean floors are often slippery floors, and slip-and-fall injuries are often the result of busy staff members navigating slick, crowded hallways and rooms.
- Illnesses and accidents involving infectious diseases, sharps, and material labeled as a biohazard are an unfortunate consequence for many healthcare workers who regularly interact with sick patients.
- Repetitive stress injuries are also common in the medical field, because ergonomics play a distant second fiddle to taking the best care of patients possible. This may mean that many healthcare workers spend day in, day out placing stress on body parts that were not designed to sustain such forces.
You may think that these injuries are just a hazard of the profession; many healthcare workers believe that these are simply risks they signed up for when they entered the field. If you sustain any of these injuries at work, however, you are entitled to workers’ compensation benefits to help you recover.
To discuss your case today, schedule your free consultation with me today. As an experienced New Jersey workers’ compensation attorney, I can help you obtain the benefits you deserve. Call today, or click on the live chat link to be connected with a firm representative instantly.
| Related Links: |