Often, I am asked how the person who is responsible for laboratory safety (yet has other duties as well) can get the job done well. In today’s labs there is tight staffing, tight budgeting, and a score of regulatory duties that must be accomplished, and not all of these things revolve solely around safety. Many who oversee the lab safety program also must run the point of care program, the lab quality program, or even manage all of the day-to-day operations of the department. It’s a great deal to juggle, but there are methods you can use to make sure that laboratory safety doesn’t take a back seat. Lab safety duties can be fit into the day, it might take more than a second or two, but it can be done.
One way to incorporate safety into your multiple roles each day is to start every meeting or huddle with a safety moment or story. Ask for a team member to discuss a safety story they witnessed or in which they were involved. Placing safety first lets the team members know it has priority, and relating an issue or incident has benefits as well. The safety moment may be as brief as reporting on how an employee provided PPE to a vendor that came into the department. That is a safety success worth mentioning, and there are doubtless others that can be mentioned. These safety stories may also be those that do not necessarily illustrate a success. Telling people about an incident and asking how it could have been avoided is a fast yet educational plus for your safety culture. Reviewing safety incidents is also beneficial so that others know what happened and they can be thinking of how to avoid the same thing from happening to others or themselves. Talking about safety in these ways takes little time, but if safety is incorporated into the language of the department, the culture will remain improved, and it is easy to fit this habit into your schedule.
Acting as a consistent role model is another way to incorporate safety into your multiple roles. Make sure you wear the correct clothing and shoes. If you walk in and out of the department, you should dress the part. Open-toed shoes or mesh sneakers should not be worn. Wear PPE when performing any work in the lab, including huddles or team meetings. It doesn’t take any extra time to model the safety behaviors you expect from the staff, and doing this shows the staff where safety stands in the department.
A third way to insert safety into your busy day is to make sure you are able to quickly spot safety issues and address them immediately. Developing your “Safety Eyes” is a vital tool – learn how to notice safety problems as you work in the lab. Train yourself to be able to do this by looking for one thing each week. For instance, look for PPE and dress code issues on week one. Purposely notice what people are wearing on their feet, look for proper PPR like lab coats and gloves. Check to see that they are worn properly. If you do this for one week, you will become much better at noticing issues with just a glance. The next week look for proper chemical labels, then fire safety issues, etc. Once your Safety Eyes are enabled, you will be able to easily see issues and manage to rectify them while performing your other lab duties.
No matter your role in the laboratory, part of the job involves talking to other people. Make safety a part of those conversations when the opportunity arises. You might speak to your lead technologist about an instrument installation. Ask about new reagents that might need to be added to the chemical inventory. Find out if there will be new waste streams generated. Was a risk assessment performed to look for other possible dangers?
Incorporating safety into your already busy day might seem like an impossibility, but it doesn’t take much time, and it can be done. It is important that it is done. You are managing different parts of the lab, but if people are getting injured and exposed because there is no focus on safety, there won’t be much left to manage! Try these few ways to blend safety into your schedule- add one at a time and see how it works. Adding safety in seconds can add up to a big improvement in your lab safety culture.