Assisting with Gait belt

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Hello, im working as a HHA and Im having a little bit of trouble with assisting my client from the bed to the wheelchair . Im using a gait belt but I still find that its very difficult to do so, when I come home my back is in pain. does anyone know any websites that can teach me the proper technique. or any advice that I can use when transferring?

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Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

do you have access to a physical therapist to help train you? If not, I have no advice but will say that, even with a gait belt, a heavy patient is still a heavy patient.

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Specializes in Home Care.

Get another person to help you transfer the patient.

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Can you describe how you are transferring the patient.

I get that you're in HH and are probably a solo worker.

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Hello, im working as a HHA and Im having a little bit of trouble with assisting my client from the bed to the wheelchair . Im using a gait belt but I still find that its very difficult to do so, when I come home my back is in pain. does anyone know any websites that can teach me the proper technique. or any advice that I can use when transferring?

When I did home care as an aid I ran into this problem all the time. They had people who would clearly be a freaking hoyer in a nursing home but I was supposed to be able to transfer them from the bed to the wheelchair or the wheelchair to the toilet. It was brutal. My calls to the nurse in charge of the case got me no where. They would always leave the pt. as assist of 1 no matter what so that they could continue being a client of this homecare agency. No one cared if the aid or patient ended up getting hurt in the end.

That said, maybe contacting the PT department of your home care agency if they have one for ideas/pointers/inservicing would work for you if your agency is more reputable than the one I worked for.

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Specializes in Gerontology/Home Health CM, OB, ICU, MS.

This is just one reason why it's so important to work for quality employers - those who care enough to be certified, (even if it's not required by law), etc.

The right answer is: a Physical Therapist needs to do a co-visit with you, to assess & teach you & the pt.

A P.T. is a professional, not simply an employee of Agency "X". They adhere to a code of ethics beyond, "I shall always try to make money for my employer".

If better equipment is needed in the home, or for any reason they cannot teach 1 person to do the lift safely, they will let the M.D. know.

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