Back injuries are preventable. Nurses are taught how to prevent back injuries and yet, according to the U.S. Dept. of Labor Bureau of Statistics, nurses are still more likely to suffer a back injury than even construction workers.
A minor injury can cost a nurse precious work time and even lead to chronic pain issues later in life. Cumulative injuries or a moderate to severe single back injury can be a career-ending event.
With all of the education and emphasis on prevention, why are nurses still suffering so many back injuries? The factors which influence this most are the fact that the population is aging and obesity is becoming an epidemic.
Nurses are not immune to either of these factors themselves. Older, heavier and less mobile patients make the nurse's job much harder when it comes to moving and transferring patients.
The nursing population is also aging, and many nurses are among those suffering from obesity.
Injuries result most often from transferring patients from bed to chair or commode, lifting or repositioning in the bed and in routine bedmaking activities in which the patient remains in the bed.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) funded the Safe Patient Handling Pilot Project which is supported by the (ANA) American Nurses Association's Handle With Care Initiative, the University of South Florida College of Nursing, and the Tampa VA Patient Safety Research Center of Inquiry. In this project, the ANA selected several different patient-handling equipment vendors to supply their products to participating nursing schools. The vendors installed the equipment and instructed faculty in the uses and care of the equipment which will be used to instruct students in safe patient handling.
A draft document derived from the pilot project is avaialabel for download and use in training nurses. NIOSH is soliciting public comment on the document as well. The presentation as well as information on how to comment on the Safe Patient Handling and Movement Prnciples is available here.
The state-of-the-art equipment being used includes powered lifts such as full-body lifts, overhead lifts and sit-to-stand lifts. Padded gait belts with handles and friction-reducing lateral transfer devices are also being utilized in the evidence-based education project.
