Do you wear a back brace?

Nurses General Nursing

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I'm going to make this short and sweet since some of my posts are long and boring.

Situation: I've recently started to get bad lower back pain lately and I believe it is partially do to poor posture in general (not only from lifting/turning/catching patients falls and so on)

Question: do you wear any type of back brace to work or if you experience low back pain?

I have heard that some use a back brace at work and sometimes in their daily life to remind them to keep good posture and to help lower back pain.

Question 2: if you don't use a back brace for your lower back pain, what do you use that helps you?

Thank you! :)

One of my friends said his doctor suggested stretching. Do a lot of toe-touches and other exercises that stretch your hamstrings. He said it made a WORLD of difference after just a week of 10 minute stretches every day.

I don't wear a back brace, but I wear steel-boned corsets every day so this has greatly improved my posture. It definitely isn't for everyone though. I suggest lots of research before going that route.

Holy smokes, do I love doing stretches after a 12. I'm not deep into yoga, but there are a couple of moves that I found make me feel infinitely better. Now when I get home, I lay down in bed and just do that handful of stretches specific to my own areas of tension; it eases pain I didn't even realize I had.

Ditto a PP on using lifts. I know that they're a pain in the butt, but moving a 500 lb pt is just unfathomable to me.

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Specializes in ICU.

Thanks for starting this thread. It's giving me a wake up call that I need to get back on my stretching exercises. I threw my back out in middle school and saw a chiropractor three times a week for about three months to fix it. Had to stand up in the back of all of my classes for those three months because sitting was just too painful. He gave me a great list of exercises with weights that I am supposed to do daily, and every now and then I comply with it, but I usually don't. Crunches were a big part of those, but most were arm/shoulder/upper back things in various positions. Those are out of the question right now because I'm having some severe wrist pain (currently wearing a wrist brace), but I can at least do the crunches.

I don't have any diagnosed back problems yet, but I always have a ton of tension/pain in my shoulder blades and neck. My lower back hurts, too, but it's not as bad as right between my shoulder blades.

Regular massages help a lot, too. I briefly had a membership at a local high end massage place and that was wonderful for loosening up the muscles and making me feel better. One of these days I'm going to take out a membership again.

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Regular massages help a lot, too. I briefly had a membership at a local high end massage place and that was wonderful for loosening up the muscles and making me feel better. One of these days I'm going to take out a membership again.

Yaaassss! I've got this inexpensive little Asian place that gives me a discount as a hospital employee. They've developed a plan especially for me to do my hands, feet, and back only--aka, the Nurse Special!

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Regular massages help a lot, too. I briefly had a membership at a local high end massage place and that was wonderful for loosening up the muscles and making me feel better. One of these days I'm going to take out a membership again.

Luckily the facility I work in now has a spa that offers discounted massages for their hospital workers :yes:

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