Workplace health, safety and wellbeing for Healthcare NGOs: protecting field and clinic teams
Healthcare NGO staff look after other people while travelling long roads, working in rough places and hearing hard stories. Their own safety and wellbeing need a plan that a small organisation can really follow.
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Share your requirementsWhy workplace health, safety and wellbeing matters in healthcare NGOs
Field teams travel by road in vans and on motorcycles, sometimes at night after a camp. They work in places with little shelter, limited toilets and uncertain phone signal. Counsellors and outreach workers listen to cases of illness, violence and loss, and carry them home. Yet most NGOs concentrate on the patient and leave the worker for later.
A practical plan starts with the real risks: the long road home, an unsafe site, a hostile visit, tired drivers and emotional strain. Each gets a simple rule, a person responsible and a check. Wellbeing is not a perk here. It is how an NGO keeps trained people, because outreach workers who feel unsupported often leave quietly after a year.
How to set it up
1. Walk through a typical field day
Follow a team from morning to return and note each point of risk: travel, site, heat or cold, food, toilets, phone access and the way back. Include the driver in the walk.
2. Write short rules for the top risks
Limits on driving hours, a rule on not travelling alone after dark, a check-in call at set times and what to do if a site feels unsafe. Keep each rule to a line.
3. Name a person to call
A phone number answered by someone senior during camp hours, with an alternate. Everyone in the field should know it by heart.
4. Set up emotional support
A monthly team talk after hard weeks, a named senior colleague for one to one chats and, where possible, access to an outside counsellor. Keep it voluntary and private.
5. Review incidents without blame
Record near misses and incidents, discuss them within a week and change one thing each time. Share the learning with all project sites.
Check these first
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These take an afternoon and use your own records.
- Ask a driver how many hours he drove on the longest camp day last month.
- Check whether every team knows whom to call after hours.
- Ask two counsellors who they talk to when a case troubles them.
- Look at whether near misses are recorded or only serious events.
GullyHR can do this with you. Read how we approach workplace health, safety and wellbeing in general, or share your requirements and we will tell you where to start.
Questions owners ask
Walk through one field day with the team and list the risks they actually face. Then write a rule for the three biggest. A short, followed rule beats a long manual that nobody reads.
Hold a regular peer talk, give them a senior colleague to go to and set a limit on caseload where you can. An outside counsellor on call is a bonus, not the only option.
The NGO is, while they work on its programme. Brief them on risks, pair them with staff and do not send them alone to places staff would not go. Confirm duties with a qualified professional.