Prevention is the key to avoiding accidents. Part of prevention is reporting and learning from events that could have led to an accident. This is known as the Near Miss Incident Reporting process.

Humber defines a near miss as an occurrence that does not result in injury/illness or property damage, but which, under slightly different circumstances, could have resulted in harm to people, damage to property, or loss to process.

At Humber, all near miss incidents must be reported promptly. Employees and supervisors should work together to learn from these situations and prevent injury/property damage in the future. If you have a near miss, you should:

1. Discuss it with your supervisor; and,
2. Complete the Health & Safety Incident Report with your supervisor, identifying the incident as a near miss. Your supervisor will submit the report to Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) Services at healthandsafety@humber.ca.

This way, the college is made aware of potential hazards, and OHS can work with employees and managers to strategize how to mitigate these risks. Reporting near misses is an important part of supporting a positive culture of safety. 

Remember, whether an incident leads to an injury and/or property damage or not, they are all treated the same and must be reported!

This post is brought to you by Humber’s Joint Occupational Health and Safety Committee (JOHSC). For information about the JOHSC at your site, meeting dates, workplace inspection schedules, or the contact information of the committee members, visit our website.

Wednesday, January 25 is Bell Let’s Talk Day. The campaign promotes awareness, acceptance and action on mental health. Here are some quick facts about mental health in Canada:

• A major struggle for those living with mental health issues is overcoming the stigma. Bell Let’s Talk Day encourages people to talk and take action to help reduce stigma and promote mental health awareness and understanding   

• Approximately 20 per cent of Canadian youth are affected by a mental illness or disorder   

• By age 40, about 50 per cent of the population will have or have had a mental illness. 

• The economic cost of mental illnesses to the Canadian healthcare and social support system was projected as $79.9 billion for the year 2021 

Learn more about the Bell Let's Talk campaign.

Learn more information on the cost of mental health including statistics on youth mental health.

Please email us at accessible-learning@humber.ca with suggestions for key accessibility-related topics that you would like us to address through the Communiqué.

What are the Senior Vice-President, Academic's thoughts on transforming the future of education with artificial intelligence and machine learning? Find out in Gina's latest blog.

Jocelyn Agatha Hezekiah was Chairman of the Basic Nursing Program at Humber College. During her time at Humber, she was voted President of the Registered Nursing Association of Ontario (RNAO). She was born and educated in Trinidad, West Indies. Jocelyn obtained a Bachelor of Nursing at McGill University, a Master of Education at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, and a Ph.D. in Educational Administration from the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta.

Jocelyn has had wide and varied experience in nursing practice, nursing education and nursing service. She was the first Caribbean nurse to be elected President of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario where she served as President-elect from 1977-79 and President from 1979-81. She has been a member of a number of professional and government committees concerned with nursing education.

Prior to retirement in June 1997, Jocelyn was Associate Professor, McMaster University, Hamilton. She is currently an international nursing education consultant. Another accomplishment is that of, author. 

She wrote a book, published by UWI Press in 2001, entitled Breaking the Glass Ceiling: The Stories of Three Caribbean Nurses. 

Source: Humber Archives https://library.humber.ca/collections/sites/default/files/archive/finding-aids/mrk/MRK_4F_v4_n2_access.pdf.

Source: Hezekiah, J. (2003). Breaking the glass ceiling : the stories of three Caribbean nurses. Trafford. Available at Humber libraries. https://humber.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01OCLS_HUMB/sqmqmu/alma991000075779707314