L1 Topic 2: Outcomes and Harm

Welcome back! I hope you found that little activity useful, and I hope you got them all correct. What we'll do now is we'll look at the other end of the model. We're going to look at the terms "outcome" and "harm."

So, just like we did on the previous slide, outcome is best thought of as the thing that occurs just before the harm. So, nobody's being harmed, but they're about to be. Harm is the damage that's done – it's the cut, the fracture, or the break. It's the "ouch." Now, sometimes it's difficult to work out what the outcome is. The "ouch" is usually quite easy. In these cases, leave the outcome blank and just fill in the harm with the hazard and the activity.

It is essential when doing these that you fill in both boxes. On this side, we really only need one, but sometimes it's not obvious which one is the best, and that's why we get you to put and think about which one is the best. If you can put two in, that's fantastic. So, let's just look at some examples, and hopefully, the difference between an outcome and a harm will become a little bit more apparent.

An outcome is a fall; the harm is a bruise. So, if you fall over, yeah, fall is what you want to stop from happening. If you don't stop that, then the bruise is the thing that causes you pain. Bruise is the harm. Yeah, the outcome is a slip; the harm could be a cut. So, the hazard could be a knife. You slip and you cut yourself. There's a difference between the slip and the cut. The cut is the thing that hurts; the slip is the thing that leads just before it happens.

Touch and burn – so the burn may result if you've touched something hot. Yeah, the hazard could be a hot surface. You touch it; there's a very slight gap before you get burnt. But understanding the difference is important, particularly later on when we start to look at understanding risk assessment. And finally, the outcome is hit by, and the harm could be a fracture.

So, you could be hit by a truck, hit by a car, hit by a piece of machinery, and the harm could be a fracture. The harm is the thing that hurts you. Understanding these differences is important. It might take a little bit of time to get used to it, but it is really, really important.