Perspectives on preventing musculoskeletal injuries in nurses: A qualitative study

Abstract

Aims and objectives To explore the perspectives of nursing and physiotherapy academics regarding techniques designed to prevent musculoskeletal pain and injury in nurses. Background High rates of musculoskeletal injuries are evident in nurses, yet there is an absence of research identifying effective interventions to address this problem. Exploring the perspectives of individuals with specialist knowledge in the area could help identify barriers to musculoskeletal injury prevention, and innovative strategies to investigate in future studies. Design Cross‐sectional qualitative descriptive study. Methods Between October–December 2017, group and individual face‐to‐face semi‐structured interviews were used to collect data. All interviews were audio‐recorded. A thematic analysis was performed, with two researchers coding audio files using NVivo software. The Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research Checklist was consulted to ensure complete reporting of all methods and findings. Results Nursing and physiotherapy academics ( N = 10) were aware of a range of techniques to prevent musculoskeletal injuries in nurses, including education, equipment, health and safety policy and multi‐disciplinary collaboration. However, several barriers to using these techniques were identified, including age, knowledge and availability of equipment, personal and contextual factors, staffing and time pressures. Several strategies were recommended for further investigation and implementation in clinical practice, such as the sharing of personal experiences, orthopaedic assessments and changes to workplaces that foster a culture of safety. Conclusions Further research is required to reduce musculoskeletal pain and injury among nurses. This research should account for the barriers to current prevention strategies and consider investigating novel interventions. Relevance to clinical practice These findings highlight strategies for preventing musculoskeletal injuries among nurses that are likely to be most effective in clinical practice.

Nurses perspectives about context specific job factors and coping strategies for back pain experiences among nurses in Lusaka, Zambia: A qualitative study

“…However, some of these job activities may be controlled by the individual nurse and could also be corrected through training although; it may not be the ultimate remedy. Therefore, prevention activities must be directed towards enhancing work practice capacity such as providing educational programs, raising self-awareness and encouraging proper physical activity, stretching exercises, and instructions personal coping strategies in response to back pain experiences (Richardson et al, 2019). The aforementioned factors may allow nurses to have personal control of their work situation and subsequently may decrease the occurrence and severity of back pain injuries.…”

“…Back pain commonly limits professional activities in the nursing profession (Richardson et al, 2019). Back pain refers to pain from the upper back to the interior gluteal folds, with or without leg pain (Chan, 2017).…”

“…Back pain refers to pain from the upper back to the interior gluteal folds, with or without leg pain (Chan, 2017). The prevalence of back pain among nurse"s ranges between concern because it is a key cause for absence at work and a decrease in working efficiency that exerts economic costs and strain on the health system (Alnaami et al, 2019;Richardson et al, 2019). Direct and indirect costs of back pain in terms of quality of life for nurses are enormous (Johnson and Emmanuel, 2016).…”

“…Nonetheless, there are inadequate qualitative studies that have explored the lived experiences on context factors for back pain in the work settings among nurses. The perspectives on preventing musculoskeletal disorders in nurses (Richardson et al, 2019) and the nurses experiences of manual handling in health care (Kay et al, 2015) were reported in Australia. Qualitative methods are useful to study the experiences of nurses within the context of their work settings because informants can provide useful information that can enable one to understand their experiences and generate new information that is important in making decisions.…”

“…Qualitative methods are useful to study the experiences of nurses within the context of their work settings because informants can provide useful information that can enable one to understand their experiences and generate new information that is important in making decisions. Further, there are inadequate qualitative studies that have been done on context specific factors for back pain experiences among nurses especially in low-income settings (Richardson et al, 2019;Kay et al, 2015;Mwilila and Frantz, 2008). Context specific factors are environmental influences such as experiences that have an impact on the phenomenon under observation (Woolf and Aron, 2013).…”