Manual handling and the lawfulness of no-lift policies

They may also develop from a "peak load". Peak loads occur when a onetime task or event is performed that requires the body to perform above its capacity. Registered nurses, registered practical nurses, and health care aides experience injury and disability from muscoloskeletal injuries. An ergonomic approach to patient handling that is part of an overall program to reduce musculoskeletal injuries can benefit caregivers and employers alike.

The health and safety policy is the commitment by the employer to provide and maintain a safe workplace. When the workplace parties sit down to develop an ergonomic approach to patient handling, they will develop terms of reference that set forth how the workplace will function in approaching this problem and reach its goal of reduced injuries. The needs analysis should include to review and document, on an on-going basis, the causes of injuries that occur during patient handling.

The impact of caring for aggressive patients and residents also needs to be analyzed. It should document the number of injuries and all the relevant details needed to eliminate hazards and develop work practices that will ensure prevention. The committee performing the needs analysis should be representative of all areas, shifts, and all groups of employees who have experienced musculoskeletal injuries or those who are likely to be handling patients as part of their work. An important tool in conducting the needs analysis is a survey to obtain the input of the employees.

A written questionnaire that can be completed anonymously can ask for details regarding hazards and proposed solutions. Questions can include workload, jobs, tasks and work environments that the employees perceive as high risk. Many times, these surveys will highlight problems not normally found through other sources. The committee should analyze the data from the questionnaire combined with their own investigation and experience.

This information is needed to determine high risk activities, and to establish baseline injury data to which future injury data can be compared to e. Conduct a site visit to observe each work environment or area. The goal is to evaluate injury data and to match it to equipment and space issues, physical layout, storage availability, maintenance or repair issues, and staffing. The committee will need to carefully analyze the number of patients or residents assigned to staff members, the number and duration of tasks required for these specific clients, and the time allotted to caregivers in order to fairly gauge workload.

Excessive workloads are hazardous to clients as well as to caregivers. A critical issue in ergonomic patient handling is the distinction between a patient or resident transfer and a lift. A transfer is a dynamic effort in which the client aids in the transfer and is able to bear weight on at least one leg.

A lift involves moving a client who cannot bear weight on at least one leg. Lifts should always involve mechanical lifting devices. Injuries to caregivers during patient and resident transfers usually occur when a patient transfer suddenly becomes a patient lift. Assessment of the client's capabilities therefore becomes a critical component of any ergonomic patient-handling program. Clients who suddenly lose their balance must be identified to determine whether two caregivers are necessary to affect a transfer or whether a mechanical device is necessary.

The relative sizes of the caregiver and the client must be considered when one is determining the need for additional staff to aid in a transfer or the need for a mechanical lift. Nurses are acutely aware that the manual handling of patients can result in back injury McGuire and Dewar Yet they are also aware that they owe a duty to patients to provide nursing care to meet their needs and that might only be achieved through manual handling. There is evidence that hospitals in particular have still not met the requirements of the Manual Handling Operations Regulations Trevelyan The hazards of working in the community environment have generally been better addressed as part of the assessment for and delivery of individual care packages.

This article considers the law's approach to balancing the opposing needs of nurses' and patients' health needs. Full text links Read article at publisher's site DOI : Smart citations by scite. The number of the statements may be higher than the number of citations provided by EuropePMC if one paper cites another multiple times or lower if scite has not yet processed some of the citing articles. Explore citation contexts and check if this article has been supported or disputed.

Perceptions of hospital manual handling policy and impact on nursing team involvement in promoting patients' mobility. Musculo-skeletal injury - Are Universities doing enough to protect students? The manual handling of the aggressive patient: a review of the risk of injury to nurses. Similar Articles To arrive at the top five similar articles we use a word-weighted algorithm to compare words from the Title and Abstract of each citation.

Texas passes first law for safe patient handling in America: landmark legislation protects health-care workers and patients from injury related to manual patient lifting. Devastating injuries in healthcare workers: description of the crisis and legislative solution to the epidemic of back injury from patient lifting. Prevention of disabling back injuries in nurses by the use of mechanical patient lift systems. Legal requirements for safe handling in community care.

Erasing the word 'lift' from nurses' vocabulary when handling patients. Read this article via your institutional log in or pair token. Recommend to your librarian. We use cookies on this site to enhance your user experience. By clicking any link on this page you are giving your consent for us to set cookies. Thank you for submitting a report! Submitting a report will send us an email through our customer support system. Submit report Close. All rights reserved. Not to be copied, transmitted or recorded in any way, in whole or part, without prior permission of the publishers.

Recommended Articles Loading References Simplistic stance on manual handling? Nurse wins huge pay out for injury. The assessment of moving and handling practices amongst Scottish nurses. The Judeo-Christian foundation of human dignity, personal liberty, and the concept of the person. Voting with their feet. Introducing a safer handling policy.

Read and print from thousands of top scholarly journals.