The document aims to raise awareness and increase understanding of the safety and health risks involved in home healthcare and suggests prevention strategies to reduce the number of injuries, illnesses, and fatalities that too frequently occur among workers in this industry. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
LIFING PCT SERIES
This is one in a series of six fast fact cards developed to provide practical advice for home healthcare workers and is based on NIOSH Hazard Review: Occupational Hazards in Home Healthcare, NIOSH Pub No. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Publication No.
LIFING PCT HOW TO
Home Healthcare Workers: How to Prevent Musculoskeletal Disorders.Explaining planned lifting procedures to patients prior to lifting and enlisting their cooperation and engagement can increase patient safety and comfort, and enhance their sense of dignity. The use of assistive patient handling equipment and devices is beneficial not only for healthcare staff, but also for patients. The education and training of healthcare employees should be geared towards assessment of hazards in the healthcare work setting, selection and use of the appropriate patient lifting equipment and devices, and review of research-based practices of safe patient handling.
LIFING PCT MANUAL
Essential elements of such a program include management commitment to implement a safe patient handling program and to provide workers with appropriate measures to avoid manual handling worker participation in the assessment and implementation processes and the evaluation and selection of patient handling devices a thorough hazard assessment that addresses high risk units or areas investment in equipment care planning for patient handling and movement training for staff and program review and evaluation processes. Patient transfer and lifting devices are key components of an effective program to control the risk of injury to patients and staff associated with lifting, transferring, repositioning or movement of patients. Given the increasingly hazardous biomechanical demands on caregivers today, it is clear the healthcare industry must rely on technology to make patient handling and movement safe. Some examples of areas of a facility that may be identified as high-risk include: bathing rooms, extended care wings, and diagnostic units (e.g., radiology, emergency department, spinal unit, orthopedics department).
Industries where patient handling tasks are performed include: In addition, healthcare employees, who experience pain and fatigue, may be less productive, less attentive, more susceptible to further injury, and may be more likely to affect the health and safety of others. Direct and indirect costs associated with only back injuries in the healthcare industry are estimated to be $20 billion annually.
As many as 20% of nurses who leave direct patient care positions do so because of risks associated with the work. Along with higher employer costs due to medical expenses, disability compensation, and litigation, nurse injuries also are costly in terms of chronic pain and functional disability, absenteeism, and turnover. The consequences of work-related musculoskeletal injuries among nurses are substantial. The problem of lifting patients is compounded by the increasing weight of patients to be lifted due to the obesity epidemic in the United States and the rapidly increasing number of older people who require assistance with the activities of daily living. Sprains and strains are the most often reported nature of injuries, and the shoulders and low back are the most affected body parts. Some examples of patient handling tasks that may be identified as high-risk include: transferring from toilet to chair, transferring from chair to bed, transferring from bathtub to chair, repositioning from side to side in bed, lifting a patient in bed, repositioning a patient in chair, or making a bed with a patient in it. These injuries are due in large part to overexertion related to repeated manual patient handling activities, often involving heavy manual lifting associated with transferring, and repositioning patients and working in extremely awkward postures.
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