What are we teaching about lifting and transferring patients?

Abstract

Lifting patients under the axilla has been found to be physically stressful for nurses and uncomfortable for patients. The goals of this study were to find out: how often educators teach this method and observe it in the clinical field; which assistive devices are used in teaching; and what authors of textbooks teach about the under-axilla method. A questionnaire was sent to 546 baccalaureate (BS) and associate (AD) degree programs; 358 educators responded and 337 responses were analyzed. Eighty-three percent of the educators teach the under-axilla method for in- and out-of-bed transfers; 94% observe it used in the clinical field. For lifting up in bed, 56% teach the under-axilla method; 86% observe it in the clinical field. When assistive devices are included in teaching, the hydraulic lift and gait belt are taught most often; less stressful and more comfortable devices are not taught or observed by most respondents. None of the authors of the 3 most frequently used textbooks describe the use of the under-axilla method; authors of 2 textbooks state patients should not have pressure placed on the axilla area.

Nurses' Perception of Their Work Environment, Health, and Well-Being

“…Administrative controls, such as "no lift" policies and training promoting mechanical lifting and discouraging manual lifting have reduced workers' compensation costs and lost workdays caused by nurse injuries (Lynch, 2000;Monaghan, 1998;Owen, 1999). Settings with proper lifting equipment and lifting teams were related to lower odds of nurses having an MSD (Trinkoff, 2003b).…”

Nurse absenteeism, stress and workplace injury: what are the contributing factors and what can/should be done about it?

“…* ergonomic assessments (Bell, 1987;Collins & Owen, 1996;Garg & Owen, 1992;Garg, Owen, & Carlson, 1992;Owen & Garg, 1993;Orr, 1997); * implementing safe lifting practices such as lifting with a partner or having lifting teams (Charney, Zimmerman, & Walara, 1991); * teaching nurses to assess patients' weight and to identify and use appropriate equipment for lifting (Dixon et al, 1996;Goodridge & Laurila, 1997;Owen & Garg, 1994) and educating nurses about safe lifting practices (Owen, Welden, & Kane, 1999;Videman et al, 1989); and…”

Towards human-centered AI and robotics to reduce hospital falls: finding opportunities to enhance patient-nurse interactions during toileting

“…Sit-to-stand devices, which assist clinical staff in physically lifting a patient to a standing position are already implemented within hospitals and can improve comfort and reduce occupational injuries ( Tang et al, 2017 ; OSHA, 2023 ). Solutions such as a gait belt, which is secured around the patient’s torso to provide support to someone who has difficulty standing, and a Hoyer Lift, which is a powered device that lifts patients out of bed to stand them up, have been implemented in healthcare institutions for a long time ( Owen et al, 1999 ); yet these tools are often unused for a variety of reasons ( Schoenfisch et al, 2019 ). Additionally, On the “high-tech” front, Artificial Intelligence (AI) approaches could provide better fall risk predictions ( Marschollek et al, 2012 ; Novin et al, 2021 ).…”