A Randomized Controlled Trial to Prevent Patient Lift and Transfer Injuries of Health Care Workers

Abstract

The "no strenuous lifting" program, which combined training with assured availability of mechanical and other assistive patient handling equipment, most effectively improved comfort with patient handling, decreased staff fatigue, and decreased physical demands. The fact that injury rates were not statistically significantly reduced may reflect the less sensitive nature of this indicator compared with the subjective indicators.

Musculoskeletal pain among critical-care nurses by availability and use of patient lifting equipment: An analysis of cross-sectional survey data

“…This finding is interesting because back injury prevention is the primary goal in lift interventions (Marras et al, 2009;Santaguida et al, 2005) and the strongest protective effect of lifts was expected for the low back. Only a few studies have examined the effect of patient lift intervention on shoulders (Li et al, 2004;Trinkoff et al, 2003;Yassi et al, 2001) and these studies reported beneficial effects in line with our study findings. In a study by Yassi et al (2001), significant reductions of work-related shoulder pain and low back pain were found among intervention groups provided with mechanical lifts and other transfer aids compared to the control group using usual practices.…”

“…Only a few studies have examined the effect of patient lift intervention on shoulders (Li et al, 2004;Trinkoff et al, 2003;Yassi et al, 2001) and these studies reported beneficial effects in line with our study findings. In a study by Yassi et al (2001), significant reductions of work-related shoulder pain and low back pain were found among intervention groups provided with mechanical lifts and other transfer aids compared to the control group using usual practices. In a study by Li et al (2004), musculoskeletal comfort scores in the shoulders and upper arms significantly increased six months after providing lifts and training; however, the largest increases in comfort were found for the low and upper back.…”

“…Work-related pain, however, has not been a common choice as a pain measure in intervention or prevalence studies. According to a systematic review of back injury intervention studies among nurses (Dawson et al, 2007), seven out of eight studies that evaluated patient handling devices or ergonomics training assessed pain as the outcome measure, and only one study asked about work-related pain and it was the only study that found a significant reduction in pain (Yassi et al, 2001). Employing an outcome measure with an adequate sensitivity and specificity should be an important consideration in intervention studies.…”

“…Biomechanical and lift intervention studies have shown significant reductions in biomechanical stress, musculoskeletal discomfort, injury rates, and workers compensation costs (Engst et al, 2005;Evanoff et al, 2003;Li et al, 2004;Yassi et al, 2001;Zhuang et al, 2000). Eliminating risky manual lifting and promoting the use of adequate lifting equipment have become a key component of safe patient handling policies internationally (American Nurses Association, 2012b;Australian Nursing Federation, 2012;Workers Compensation Board of British Columbia, 2006).…”

Effects of educational intervention on joint angles of the trunk and lower extremity and on muscle activities during patient-handling tasks

“…Various work-related musculoskeletal disorders, including lumbago, are common among individuals working in the medical and nursing care field [2][3][4][5][6][7][8]; however, little has been reported about the incidence of such disorders among physiotherapists in Japan [9]. Several researchers have pointed out the significance of patient-handling tasks, such as transferring patients, as the cause of lumbago [2,[10][11][12][13][14][15], and a large number of reports on the effect of educational intervention on the prevention of lumbago resulting from patient-handling tasks among nurses and nursing students have been published.…”