Ross

Jason Ross

Assessment 1

BSBOHS509A

Ensure a Safe Workplace

Introduction

Before coming to Australia I worked as a Pharmacy Technician at Target Pharmacy in a Seattle suburb of Lake Stevens. The pharmacy environment was a challenging one but it was a job that required absolutely no heavy lifting or strenuous activity of any kind. The worst thing that could happen to anybody working there was an occasional paper cut; and believe me; I had my fair share of those. The challenge in the pharmacy was not from physical activity but by the mental kind. To work there, someone must have an excellent memory as well as a great deal of skill in mathematics. One must also be quick, efficient and the ability to never let the stresses of the job show. I would say we had a perfect team in this pharmacy until a woman named Janice joined the team. Janice was a very small, older woman with a fun and friendly demeanour. She had a quality about her that made her instantly liked by the entire pharmacy crew. The only problem was that she had absolutely no experience or education to make her qualified for such a position. On top of that, her age and lack of college education made her very hard to train. She ended up not being able to cope with the high stresses of the pharmacy atmosphere and later quit her job. You might be wondering why she was placed in such an environment in the first place? In the next few pages I will tell you the story of Janice and explain why she came to work in our pharmacy.

The Incident
Janice was hired by Target to stock shelves originally. One cold, snowy winter day she came to work and stocked shelves like she normally did when she was asked to refill the tire chains. Tire chains are very heavy boxes and they had to be placed on a high shelf to keep them at eye level for the customers to help maximise sales. The weight of these boxes was a lot to handle for such a small woman in her mid-fifty’s. What she didn’t know was