Job Related Back Injuries For Nurses

The Nurse and Health Care Worker Protection Act of 2015, or H.R. 4266, was reintroduced to congress in December of 2015 by Representative John Conyers and Senator Al Franken (Mitchell & Dawson, 2016). It is legislation that attempts to protect patients, nurses, nurse assistants, and other healthcare workers from injuries as a result of unsafe patient handling and mobilization. Congress found that in 2014, registered nurses were the sixth largest profession who were reporting musculoskeletal disorders and injuries as a result of their employment with 11,360 cases; the second highest profession in 2014 of reported musculoskeletal injuries was nursing assistants with 20,020 cases (H.R. 4266, 2015).

Mandating safe staffing levels for registered nurses in acute care settings has been an important topic of discussion for many years. As the demand for registered nurses continues to rise, so does the clinical demands on the nurses currently working. If there are no specific policies in place that mandate safe and appropriate nurse-to-patient ratios for all acute care facilities, registered nurses (RNs) may be required to take on even more patients than the already high numbers currently given to many of them. Inadequate RN staffing has the potential to cause increases in adverse patient events (American Nurses Association (ANA), The registered nurse safe staffing act, 2015) as well as an increase in nurse injury (Musick, Trotto, & Morrison,

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.

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

The population for the research was two postoperative orthopedic units with 29 beds each (Tucker et al., 2012). Nursing staff provided care for the patient with total joint replacement, adult reconstructive surgery, and orthopedic oncology (Tucker et al., 2012). Patient care was directed, planned, delivered, and evaluated by registered nurses only. Data collection was through nurse’s documentation. The SNRI interventions included offering toileting assistance, assessing and addressing patient comfort and position, placing call light Kleenex, water, remote, and garbage can within patient reach. Prior leaving, they would ask the patient if they needed any help, inform the patient that nursing staff will be back, and emphasized the willingness of the staff to respond rather than the patient try to ambulate unassisted (Tucker et al., 2012). To determine the effectiveness of SNRIs there were variables that were examined patient fall rates, patient fall risk, and nursing SNRIs fidelity. The research was approved by the Institutional Review Board for the protection of human subjects. Nurses were allowed to review medical record for fall-related data, participate in the SNRI implementation, and attend focus groups with the study nurses (Tucker et al., 2012).

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

Safety is the most important factor for patients receiving care within healthcare organizations. Health care workers and team members most especially nurses play an important role in the protection of the patients ensuring prevention of falls and injuries that occur as a result from falls. Falls are known to be the second leading cause of death from unintentional injuries worldwide (Mitchell, 2017). Nurses have the onus to keep their patients safe from falls and associated injuries daily. Patients that have been hospitalized are at higher risk of falls. Nurses have various tasks to be done per shift and it is important to ensure time is made available to meet

Low back pain is a highly prevalent socioeconomic health issue in the world we live in today and one of the top causes of disability - affecting work performance and the overall quality of life for many. The 2010 Global Burden of Disease Study estimated that out of 289 health conditions, low back pain ranked number one in terms of disability (YLDs - Years Lived with Disability), and sixth in terms of overall burden (DALYs - Disability-Adjusted Life Years) (Lancet, 2012). It is estimated that 60% to 70% of the industrialized population will experience non-specific (most common type) low back pain in their lifetimes with a one-year prevalence of 15% to 45%, adults occurring 5% per year (Taimela, Kujala, Salminen, Viljanen, 1997, 1132-1136). Children and adolescents have a lower prevalence rate than adults, but is rapidly on the rise (Balague, Troussier, Salminen, 1999, 429-438).

As a woman on the brink of becoming a grandmother for the first time and working on my Paramedic license, I do not want to become a statistic and suffer from a back injury that so many first responders suffer from these days. There are so many variables to staying healthy such as eating right, staying fit, and learning proper mechanics for lifting heavy loads. When taking these variables into account, how can someone in my profession improve the quality of our work environment to insure a better percentage for a lesser chance of injury? Will better equipment improve these variables as well? Do the costs for better equipment outweigh the cost of recovery? It is my belief that not only health, fitness, and education will reduce our chance for injury but better, more efficient, equipment will also assist in longer, lasting careers.

Chronic lower back pain is on the rise in not only America, but is on the rise in the world. According to a study by the Annals of Rheumatic Diseases in 2010, approximately one in ten people suffer from lower back pain, which makes lower back pain the leading cause of disability in the world (http://ard.bmj.com/content/early/2014/02/14/annrheumdis-2013-204428). This rate is on the rise and should be extremely alarming as common activities, including working a desk job, can contribute to chronic lower back pain. While there are many different methods to treat chronic lower back pain, including physical therapy, therapeutic

The First Health video demonstrates proper techniques for transferring, positioning, and ambulating a patient to increase movement and decrease their risk for injury. One proper technique demonstrated is how to reposition a client in the bed who is slouching or has slipped down. This is done by lowering the head of the bed as flat as possible, and if able, having the patient cross their arms and bend their legs. When moving the patient, the nurse should ask them to raise their head up to make the move smoother (“Moving Patient”). As the video dictates, the smaller the client relative to bed size, the easier it is to move them. The video also includes how to position someone with an affected or weaker side, on their back, on their unaffected side, and on their affected side. Providing pillows for additional support is also emphasized. To position the client on their back, place a pillow under the affected arm and gently move it out and away

Nursing and healthcare continue to change on a daily basis. The one thing that has remained constant during these changes is maintaining the safety of our patients. By maintaining their safety, nurses must ensure that they are keeping up-to-date with the changes in technology now being introduced in healthcare, new and emerging diseases, new equipment, and changes in treatment modalities. One such responsibility is ensuring that nurses do not operate equipment they were not oriented to or trained to use in an effort to prevent injury patients. Nurses and other healthcare professionals are being held accountable for practicing within their scope of practice based on their licensure regulations, and the company policies and procedures. Therefore, nurses are responsible for their professional growth and practice by ensuring that they comply with the necessary standards required by their profession.

DOI: 7/26/2012. The patient is a 44-year old female pickup associate who sustained a work-related injury to her hip while moving a barbecue grill. As per OMNI entry, she was initially diagnosed with lumbar strain and sacroiliac joint pain.

Nursing and healthcare continue to change on a daily basis. The one thing that has remained constant during these changes is maintaining the safety of our patients. By maintaining their safety, nurses must ensure that they are keeping up-to-date with the changes in technology now being introduced in healthcare, new and emerging diseases, new equipment, and changes in treatment modalities. One such responsibility is ensuring that nurses do not operate equipment they were not oriented to or trained to use in an effort to prevent injury patients. Nurses and other healthcare professionals are being held accountable for practicing within their scope of practice based on their licensure regulations, and the company policies and procedures. Therefore, nurses are responsible for their professional growth and practice by ensuring that they comply with the necessary standards required by their profession.

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