Doctor told me to remove sling after hoisting patient.

[321Ken]

I'm a new grad RN and I work at a rehab unit, myself and another nurse had hoisted a 120kg patient onto a water chair, after setting the patient down onto the water chair I made sure the, plastic buckles of the sling were not in contact with the patients skin.

The doctor came in at noon and told me to remove the sling because it can rub on the patients skin and cause a pressure injury.

I was conflicted at this situation because the patient can not roll onto his side because there is no space on the water chair, also you could not remove the arm sides of the water chair,

and to add to that the patient could barely move even if i wanted to remove the sling the patient to sit-up by himself and remove the sling it would not be possible. LET alone putting back the sling on the patient while on the water chair would be impossible causing back injuries.

I've worked as an AIN at a neuroscience unit and i vaguely recall that hoist patients have their slings on them while sitting on chair or wheelchair.

Can any experience nurse or physiotherapist enlighten me on this subject.

[Rocknurse, MSN, APRN, NP]

In my ICU we had huge flat blue sling sheets that we would leave under the patient if they were particularly large, because we have ceiling lifts in every room. It really helped if you had a big patient because I could turn them on my own with little effort from side to side during the shift and would require less frequent complete turns where you needed to call in three other staff to help. However, my unit made a new policy where you were no longer allowed to keep them under the patient, even though there was a sheet over it and that was for pressure sore reasons too. We had specially shaped chair hoists that you could easily get on by just leaning the patient forward so if they were in the chair we could just take off the hoist until we needed it again. I loved those ceiling hoists. Every single unit should have them.