Weight Lifting RN's

I don't view this as unreasonable. For my job at my factory I had to endure a back screen that involved several rather difficult exercises. They then had you lift progressively heavier boxes. To pass this exam you had to at least lift 80lbs, although they have you go to failure or 120lbs. It was harder for me to pass the body weight exercises then to lift 120lbs. Keep in mind when they state 100lbs they most likely are talking a 100% perfect lifting scenario, and they honestly do not plan on you lifting that amount. They are just trying to eliminate potential accidents, if you are in a prone circumstance.

The thing of it is, there is a difference between lifting a box in a setting when you can use proper body mechanics. And assisting a patient that suddenly panics, fights you, twists, goes limp..or you are having to bend, twist, shuffle, scoot otherwise move over equipment that's too high/too low/too close/too far and manuever around equipment, cords, tubing, while trying not to pull on incisions or chest tubes and the pt is a good 12 inches taller than you and 150+ pounds heavier....all the while trying to maintain proper body mechanics...

I have and will continue to tell patients that when I am transferring you... please cooperate with me, not listening and following instructions is how you and I will both get hurt. If you don't feel comfortable with me transferring you, then I will get assistance. However, we do not have male nurses working on night shift, and we do not have lifts for transferring patients. We do, however, transfer patients quite frequently and we perform cardiac rehab on this floor, so we know what we are doing, please trust us, we do this on a daily basis.