Did you know that a workplace injury occurs about every 7 seconds during the workday? That amounts to almost 3 million workplace injuries each year.
If you’re ever injured while on the job, it’s going to be very important for you to take the right steps before getting back to work. Recovering from injury is going to be key and will ensure that you’re ready to do your job to the best of your ability moving forward.
There are some people who try to rush through the process of returning to work from being injured—and they often pay the price for doing it. Many times, they end up getting hurt again or continuing to deal with the pain associated with their original work injury.
You can avoid finding yourself in this situation after sustaining injuries that put you out of work. Check out some tips that will help you get healthy and get back to work.
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Start by Reporting Your Injury to Your Employer
The first thing that you should do before you even begin to think about trying to recover from an injury sustained at work is report the injury to your employer. They need to know about it, especially if it’s something that’s going to keep you off your feet for a few days, a few weeks, or even a few months.
Your employer should put together a full report on your injury. They should talk with you and others about what happened, what kind of injury you sustained as a result of it, and more.
Don’t jumpstart the process of recovering from injury prior to talking to your employer about it. Otherwise, you could end up not getting paid for however long you’re out of work. You could also have trouble getting back to work later on.
Arrange to Have Your Injury Looked at by a Doctor
In addition to talking to your employer about your work injury, you should also meet with a doctor about it. Even if you don’t think the injury is all that serious, it’s always better to be safe than sorry when it comes to workplace injuries.
You should take a trip to the emergency room or schedule an appointment with your primary doctor so that they can evaluate you and tell you what kind of injury you sustained. Once you know what’s wrong with you, you should then go back and tell your employer about it.
Do Whatever Your Doctor Tells You to Do to Heal Your Injury
After your doctor has figured out what’s wrong with you, they’ll come up with a plan of action as far as your recovery is concerned. They’ll give you some advice on how you should go about getting your injury to heal.
In some cases, the only thing that you might have to do is take some Advil and get some rest. But in other instances, your doctor might recommend that you go to physical therapy or even have surgery to correct whatever health issues you’re having due to your injury.
Follow your doctor’s recommendations so that you can heal up quickly. If you put off doing physical therapy or having surgery, it could result in your injury getting worse.
Speak With a Lawyer About Potentially Taking Legal Action
If your work injury knocks you off your feet and forces you out of work for an extended period of time, it could lead to you missing out on paychecks before long. This could put you in a financial bind and force you to try and go back to work sooner than your doctor might like.
Instead of doing this, why not see if you might be entitled to workers’ compensation? You can request legal help from a workers’ comp lawyer and get the money that you deserve in the aftermath of your injury.
Make Sure You’re 100% Healed Before Going Back to Work
Recovering from injury isn’t something that’s a whole lot of fun for most people. They’re often in a rush to get back to work as soon as they can.
While you should try your best to heal up so that you can work again, you shouldn’t get back to work until you’re 100% ready to do it. Your work injury needs to be completely healed before you even think of clocking back in at work.
If you go back to work too soon, you could aggravate your injury and put yourself right back on the sidelines. You could also put others at risk if you’re not up for the challenges associated with your job.
Return to Your Doctor If You Experience Any Pain After Returning to Work
Once you return to work after recovering from injury, you might be under the impression that you’re in the clear. But this isn’t always the case.
You might still have some pain from your work injury that lingers. If this turns out to be the case, you should make a return visit to your doctor to talk to them about it. They can tell you what you’re going to have to do to get that pain to go away.
You should also keep in touch with your employer about your injury and the pain that continues to come along with it. They might be able to find you a new role that won’t be quite as intense as your old one.
Recovering From Injury Can Be a Long, Hard Process for Some People
Recovering from injury isn’t always something that you can do overnight or even over the course of a few days. You might have to spend weeks and even months working at recovering from an injury.
Use the tips found here to speed up your recovery process slightly. They should provide you with a chance to get back to work sooner rather than later.
Interested in finding out more about the workers’ compensation you may be entitled to following a work injury? Read through some of the other articles on our blog to learn all about it.