John Lloyd, PhD CPE - Preventing Nursing Back Injuries

John D. Lloyd, PhD, CPE
Board Certified Ergonomist

32824 Michigan Avenue
San Antonio, Florida 33576

Tel: 813-624-8986

Preventing Nursing Back Injuries

Purpose: The researchers identified nine patient handling tasks that put nurses at high risk for musculoskeletal injuries. An expert panel redesigned these tasks using new patient handling technologies and work practice controls. The key objective was to evaluate the biomechanical benefit of the redesigned tasks.

Methodology: A clinical trial was conducted to evaluate muscle activity, compressive force on the spine, joint moments, and perceived comfort. Sixty-three subjects who performed the redesigned tasks were compared with 71 subjects who used standard procedures. Both objective and subjective data were collected.

Results: Findings from the objective data revealed significant improvement in five of the redesigned tasks, while staff subjectively rated four of the redesigned tasks as significantly improved.

Conclusions: Nursing tasks can be redesigned to improve safety using new patient handling technologies and work practice controls. Further study is needed to redesign other high-risk tasks to promote safer work environments for nursing staff.

Please contact Dr. Lloyd for additional information