Study of design factors for transfer-aid equipment based on caregivers’ feelings

Abstract

To avoid back injuries, caregivers are advised to use transfer-aid equipment while transferring a patient from a bed to a wheelchair. Although the usage of such equipment has been recommended for several decades, it remains unpopular in several countries, including Japan. The current study investigates the feelings of caregivers regarding the usage of transfer-aid equipment, the cause of their feelings, and the measures that can be considered in order to increase the acceptance of transfer-aid equipment by the extensive caregiver community. The relations among the movements of users (caregivers and patients) and impressions of the caregivers regarding the equipment, while monitoring the usage of the equipment, were analyzed using Kansei engineering. The relations revealed six distinct feelings that are related to users' movements while using the equipment. IntroductionNumerous wheelchair users have found it difficult to move from a bed to a wheelchair without any assistance. However, while moving a patient from bed to wheelchair, caregivers or nurses are required to carry a heavy physical burden by themselves (Nelson et al., 2003a). Back injuries caused by personal care or nursing are considered to be a particularly serious problem (Buckle, 1987) and are observed to be closely related to lifting the patients (Bell et al., 1979;Stobbe et al., 1988;Hoogendoorn et al., 1999;Retsas and Pinikahana, 2000). However, back injuries can be effectively prevented by the usage of transfer-aid equipment (Corlett and Corlett, 1992).Various types of transfer-aid equipment have been developed (Nelson et al., 2003c;Krishnan and Pugazhenthi, 2014), and their appropriate use markedly reduces the injury risk (Zhuang et al., 2000; Nelson et al., 2003b;Baptiste et al., 2006;Schoenfisch et al., 2013;Andersen et al., 2014). The most popular type of transfer-aid device is a mechanical lift, which lifts the patient upward from the bed. Further, we observe that the mechanical lift can reduce the rate of musculoskeletal Shouhei SHIRAFUJI*, Taiki OGATA*, Zhifeng HUANG**, Naotaka MATSUI***, Takeji UEDA****, Jukai MAEDA*****, Yasuko KITAJIMA*****, Masako KANAI-PAK******, Yasushi UMEDA***, Hideyoshi YANAGISAWA******* and Jun OTA* Shirafuji, Ogata, Huang, Matsui, Ueda, Maeda, Kitajima, Kanai-Pak, Umeda,Yanagisawa and Ota, Journal of Advanced Mechanical Design, Systems, and Manufacturing, Vol.12, No.1 (2018) injuries (Analee Yassi and Tait, 2002;Trinkoff et al., 2003;Collins et al., 2004). In some countries, the replacement of manual transference using transfer-aid equipment is encouraged by the government or nursing federation of the country. The emplaced policies are often called the No Lift Policy or Minimum Lift Policy. For example, the Australian Nursing Federation has adopted a No Lift Policy since 1998, which has significantly reduced the proportion of nurses reporting the occurrence of back injuries (Engkvist, 2006;Martin et al., 2009). However, in other countries (including Japan), the penetration rates of transfer-aid equipme...

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