Back Injuries In Health Care

All incidences of injury should be reported, promptly and correctly managed, in a compassionate way. This should be followed by a root cause analysis and an action plan to prevent recurrence which may include retraining staff, and providing necessary equipment among others. Care is offered free of charge to all staff whether paid or unpaid staff as long as they are working at the health facility.

The American Nurses Association (ANA) is supporting efforts to reduce or eliminate musculoskeletal injuries associated with lifting, repositioning, and transferring patients. According to the American Nurses Association (2016), the average nurse will lift 1.8 tons per shift and over 38% of nurses will experience a back injury during his or her career. The ANA endorses legislation that requires healthcare facilities to implement the use of patient handling assistive equipment. Through this initiative, the ANA hopes to ease some of the nursing shortage issues that are compounded by work-related injuries.

King will be talking about how dangerous football is. There will be knee cartilagae tears. I will also be talking about spine injuries. The final thing is death. Thatnis all.

Who could be the be the offender? Wants the great dilemma and even the serious trouble since back injuries are hard to treat as well as for as a way to

Staff injuries that include lower back discomfort and MSD’s are considered of the most common amongst healthcare professionals (Liebert, 2007). Recent articles reflect that a staggering seventy percent of staff injuries are related to direct manual patient handling and transfers (Liebert, 2007). Staff injuries negatively affect productivity levels secondary to lost time (Liebert, 2007). This often creates a viscous cycle leaving less staff to care for more patients. This in turn increases the risks for experiencing an injury onto the overburdened and overwhelmed staff. The use of the Procedural Stretcher with

Organizations have the responsibility to provide a safe work environment for their employees. Lift equipment is expensive; however the return on investment is profound (ANA, 2013). In my previous organization, we spent two million dollars on a SPHM program, at three years had a full return on investment, and by year seven saved six million dollars (OSHA, 2013). According to Nelson (2008), it takes less time and less wear and tear on the body to use SPHM equipment than to gather a team of people to lift a patient. Physically fit health care providers are four times more likely to be injured due to repeated requests for lift help (Nelson, 2008). Educating health care workers in ergonomics for the past twenty years

Back injuries cause great impact to people and their employers. As HR Magazine author Nancy Hatch Woodward points out, “back pain remains one of the most common complaints in the workplace today and it can be devastating” (57). The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in 2005 that more than 270,000 cases of back injuries and illnesses were reported in the workplace, with those affected taking an average of seven days off of work (Woodward 58).

Many nurses had to leave the profession because of back injuries suffered on the job. Some studies were conducted including different methods to try to reduce the number of injuries on the job. The annual costs for injuries in nursing are around $20 billion. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health conducted a project to improve safety of nurses having to move or lift bariatric patients, patients whose weight exceeds the maximum that can be used by moving or lifting equipment. These patients require more care and treatment due to problems associated with obesity. The project determined the practices for bariatric patients in different hospitals and identified evidence based practices.

Back injuries are not foreign in our line of work. According to Bryan Fass (fitness expert), “injury to the knees and lower back, overexertion injuries, and mechanical strain has remained almost constant.” (Fass, 2009) Approximately 8 out of 100 EMS responders will suffer an injury compared to 1 out of 100 municipal and general labor workers, a 62 percent difference (Fass, 2009). What this means is that there are quite a few paramedics suffering injuries and currently out of work. These statistics are astronomical and chances for public safety personnel to make it to retirement age are slim, as most leave on medical disability.

Back injuries are often considered ‘ghost wounds’. They cannot be seen by the naked eye and the pain they bring cannot be shared. When a misplaced step caused one of my vertebral discs to rupture, a ghost wound began haunting me.

Backboarding is currently still being used in EMS, however is it as effective as it is believed to be? Recent studies have argued that backboarding is not as effective as previously conceived. Nevertheless, there are steps that can be taken to increase the effectiveness of spinal immobilization, however, those come with concerns as well. Padding the voids, or the spaces that are commonly found behind the knees, lower back and the head and neck, is

Identifying the population of interest in a desired project or research is essential to the focus area and ability to achieve the aim of the research. Having a research result that can be easily applicable is often dependent on the type of population sampled (Banerjee & Chaudhury, 2010). This paper will focus on the population of interest, patients with chronic back pain (CBP), while expatiating on the identified health risk of opioid use disorder (OUD) by sharing details on statistics, characteristics, health concerns, and various potential solutions to their identified concerns.

Nurses report approximately 40,000 back-related injuries each year (O’Malley et al., 2007). Nurses proudly work on the front lines of health care. Service and sacrifice mark the occupation. However, the labor-intensive requirements of the job can compromise their own health, placing nurses at a 76% risk of injury (Charney, Simmons, Lary, & Metz, 2006). Aside from exposure to communicative pathogens, the more subtle danger to nurses is in the basic nursing task of manually handling patients. Schools and hospitals can teach proper lifting techniques, but the reality is that the pressure on nurses to act quickly and decisively can force them to revert to awkward postures and positions (Resnick & Sanchez, 2009). The increasingly heavier patient demographic and aging nurse population compounds these issues (Resnick & Sanchez, 2009; Wardell, 2007). In a 2001 survey, the American Journal of Nursing reported that 38% of nurses suffered from back pain severe enough to miss days of work, and up to 12% actually leave the profession for the primary reason of back pain (de Castro, 2004; Wardell, 2007). Back injuries are a product of professional nursing practice through the years. Discovering ways to reduce the frequency and severity of back injuries in nurses will be crucial moving forward.

In beginning of a her career she is a licensed physical therapist in ROHC and provided physical therapy treatment and her goal is to prevent work related musculoskeletal injuries. She is experienced over 15 years in treating orthopedic injuries caused by occupation. As a Pilates instructor she used to train rehabilitation professionals. She is expert in using neck and back stabilizing techniques on patients and ergonomic clients. She is now Director of Physical Therapy department at Nova Pain and Rehabilitation. Her quest in field of ergonomics made her to establish an ergonomic evaluating office Ergo-RX and provides custom furnishings to the clients. As an ergonomist and physical therapist, Jeannie incorporates her physical therapy treatment and prevention of injuries to the clients and patients she is serving

Despite the national, state, local regulations in place injuries are at an all-time high worldwide. These statements lead us to a startling conclusion in order to provide safe and effective patient care we have to provide safe working conditions for our staff.