![]() ![]() Nurse managers, physical and occupational therapists, and even family members can reinforce to patients that the lift is for their safety as well as the caregiver’s and reduces the injury risk for both. Patient education can eliminate these concerns. You may find some patients are leery of the equipment they may worry about their dignity as well as safety. ![]() Patients may even feel that use of the equipment makes them less of a burden to nursing staff. Numerous studies show that use of mechanical lift equipment increases patient comfort and feelings of security compared to manual handling. Myth: Using mechanical equipment to move or reposition patients jeopardizes their comfort and safety. Installing fixed ceiling lifts in patient rooms can eliminate the extra time it takes to look for, retrieve, and conveniently store equipment. One researcher found that using mechanical lift equipment to transfer patients took fewer personnel and about 5 minutes less (even accounting for the time needed to find and set up the equipment) than manual transfers. On the other hand, manual handling may take more time if you need to wait for additional staff to assist you. Usually, the extra time it takes to use equipment results from looking for the equipment in the first place. Nonetheless, using lift equipment is much safer. In some cases, it is faster to move a patient manually. Myth: You can move patients faster when you do it manually than when you use equipment. But despite all the evidence, “proper” lifting techniques remain a part of the nursing school curriculum. What’s more, the ideal conditions listed above rarely exist, adding to the difficulty and unpredictability of patient handling. According to one estimate, the average nurse lifts 1.8 tons per shift. Yet except for pediatric patients, patients weigh more than 35 lb, and a growing percentage are obese. The caregiver’s position relative to the patient and the weight being lifted doesn’t change.The amount of weight the caregiver handles can be estimated.The patient is cooperative and not combative.When used to assess a manual patient lift, this equation found the RWL was 35 lb, given the following ideal-but uncommon-conditions: The revised lifting equation from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health is a tool that calculates the recommended weight limit (RWL) of two-handed manual lifting tasks. Also, a systematic review of lifting studies done between 19 found that many popular manual techniques (such as the shoulder lift, through-arm lift, pivot lift, bear hug, and rock lift) aren’t recommended by research and are unsafe. But patients aren’t static objects, and lifting and handling them more often take place in the lateral plane. Early studies examined the physical load of lifting a box with handles in the vertical plane. Healthcare professionals and researchers have begun to question whether existing biomechanics research (on which caregivers’ training is based) can be generalized to patient care. Many studies show that training caregivers on how to use proper body mechanics during patient handling has no impact on work practices or injury rates-perhaps because the biomechanical stresses of manual lifting exceed what the body can handle. Myth: If you use proper biomechanics and lifting techniques when moving patients manually, you can avoid injury. Disseminating accurate information is an important step in eliminating injuries. Yet much misinformation persists about safe handling and the use of equipment, such as ceiling and floor lifts, to move patients. The physical hazards of manual patient handling are well documented. The musculoskeletal disorder rate of the healthcare workers cited above (252 cases per 10,000 workers) was more than seven times the average national rate for all occupations. Compare this to construction workers, who had 34,180 days away from work and an injury rate of 394 cases per 10,000 workers. According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, nurses’ aides, orderlies, and attendants had 44,930 days away from work due to injury in 2007 their injury rate was 465 cases per 10,000 workers. In fact, patient handling can be as risky as construction work. Hospital patients are older, heavier, and sicker than they used to be, making manual handling an even more serious hazard. But for many workers on the front lines of patient care, these settings can be hazardous-especially if they frequently lift and reposition patients manually. Ideally, hospitals, nursing homes, and other healthcare facilities should evoke images of healing and comfort.
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