Exam Pass Notes

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Use these notes to focus your revision before the final assessment. The exam checks practical judgment and safe actions, not just textbook definitions.

Core messages

• Slips, trips and falls cause real harm: they can injure staff, residents, visitors and contractors and represent a significant health and safety risk in care settings.
• Hazards are ordinary items and conditions: wet floors, spillages, cables, boxes, laundry bags, poor lighting, loose mats, uneven thresholds and blocked corridors commonly lead to incidents.
• Care homes change constantly: routes can become unsafe after cleaning, personal care, deliveries, activities, meal service, laundry collection or adverse weather.
• Warning signs alone do not control risk: a sign warns people, but wet or contaminated floors still need drying, barriers, an alternative route or segregation.
• Cleaning can create or reduce slips: wrong methods, over-wetting, poor timing or inadequate supervision may increase risk; correct procedures reduce it.
• Storage is a safety measure: equipment, hoists, walking aids, boxes, laundry and cables must not block walkways or emergency exits.
• Stairs and entrances need focused controls: handrails, lighting, visual contrast, appropriate mats and attention to weather, leaves, ice and uneven surfaces all help prevent falls.
• Do not improvise height access: chairs, beds, tables, wheelchairs, trolleys, boxes and shelves are unsafe for working at height.
• Ladders and stepladders may be appropriate sometimes: use them only for low-risk, short-duration tasks and after a risk assessment confirms they are suitable.
• Report near misses: a stumble, almost-fall or unsafe shortcut identifies an opportunity to prevent a future injury.

Remember for ladders and steps

• Use the correct equipment for the task and only if you are competent and authorised to use it.
• Inspect the equipment and the work area before starting.
• Ensure steps or stepladders are stable, level and locked where required.
• Avoid overreaching, carrying awkward loads, working on wet or uneven ground, or using damaged equipment.
• Stop and ask for help if the height, load, surface or location feels unsafe.

Remember for resident-facing safety

• Residents may be more vulnerable because of frailty, poor balance, reduced vision, dementia, delirium, medication effects, continence urgency or missing aids.
• Do not remove walking aids, glasses, call bells or footwear in a way that increases the resident's risk when moving.
• Report changes in mobility, repeated near misses, sudden confusion, missing equipment or environmental hazards affecting a resident.
• Preventing resident falls requires care planning and may need clinical review; this course supports but does not replace local falls policy.

For the exam, think: spot the hazard, make it safe if you can, avoid unsafe shortcuts, report promptly and learn from near misses.