How to stay cool in the summer as a healthcare worker and ensuring service users are comfortable during the summer.

Working in the summer as a healthcare worker for a healthcare agency can be difficult because of the warm weather conditions. It is important that you stay cool and cool yourself down to prevent exhaustion.
Warm weather can cause health risks. It is vital that you identify the signs if someone is struggling in the warm weather and what you should do to protect yourself and service users from the heat.
There are various symptoms that individuals can experience in heat. These include:
* Heat stroke, which is life threatening illness in which the body temperature may be above (41 °C) within a short a short period of time.
* Heat cramps, muscle pains or spasms that occur during heavy exercise. Generally, you get these in your abdomen, arms and legs.
* Difficulty breathing and increased heart rate
* Dehydration, nausea or vomiting
* Difficulty sleeping, drowsiness, faintness and changes in behaviour
* Heat can affect the heart and respiratory system

Secure Healthcare’s tips to keep your body temperature down
Take regular showers and baths
We highly encourage you to take regular cool showers or baths. If you are providing home care for an individual, it may require you to assist an individual with a shower or bath. Even though it can be difficult during a warm period, it is important that patients regularly have a bath.

Drink regularly
While providing personal home care to an individual during the warm weather, one the most important things is to stay hydrated, particularly by drinking water and juice regularly. On average you are supposed to drink 2 litres of water a day, however during the warm weather we encourage you increase this intake. If you are providing care for an individual, you should monitor their daily fluid intake to ensure service users are hydrated.

Wear comfortable clothing
For our live-in carers, it is advised to wear clothing that is appropriate for warm weather conditions. This could be by wearing loose clothing which helps individuals feel comfortable. Here at Secure Healthcare Solutions, we provide our employees short sleeve tops and clothing appropriate for warm weather conditions. When providing care to patients it is important that they are dressed appropriately and feel comfortable, particularly during the warm weather.

Eat cold foods
During the warm weather, we encourage you to eat cold food, as opposed to hot food, eating food with high water content will also keep you hydrated, eating healthy foods such as fruits and salads contributes to a large amount of water to your diet.

Stay in the shade
When it is really hot, stay in the shade as much as possible to avoid heat stroke and heat exhaustion, it is recommended to stay in the shade as much as you can. Although sun is the best way to receive vitamin D, it is important to wear sunglasses and sun cream when outdoors to protect you from the sun.

Ventilated room
The room should be ventilated to ensure there is fresh air coming into the house. This is generally done by opening windows within the property. You could also use fans and air conditioning to ensure yourself or somebody you provide care for feel comfortable.

As a healthcare company, it is important that our staff and service users feel comfortable during the warm weather. Our staff have been professionally trained to deal with individuals in the warm weather.

Contact us on 0121 285 9449 or email us on homecare@securehealthcaresolutions to see how we can support you as staff or provide home care for your loved ones during the warm weather.