Injury reports

Do you fill out injury reports for every minor injury you or another staff sustains at work? At my job they have a notice that we are to fill out an injury form every time staff gets injured "every injury, every time, no matter how small". Most people don't bother to fill out the form...it is a pain in the neck and it often seems pointless for a minor injury. We have a resident who has fallen multiple times over the last several weeks. He is a large man who weighs approx. 250 pounds and he can not help us get him up from the floor. We do not have a lift that will help us get him up off the floor (we have 2 lifts for transfers from bed to chairs, but they won't go to the floor). So, this weekend he fell again. Four of us lifted him off the floor and got him safely on to the bed...but one of the aides said "I can't lift him if he falls again as I have injured my shoulder lifting him 3 times tonight" and I strained my lower back. At the end of the shift, I filled out the staff injury forms for both of us and turned them in with the note that neither of us anticipated needing treatment other than the cold compress and Motrin used at the time, but the the forms were filled out per policy. I also mentioned that no matter how carefully we try to use good body mechanics, it is impossible to prevent injuries when lifting a resident from the floor.

I got a call from HR the next day asking how I was doing, and letting me know that due to the injury forms being filled out, the administration had authorized the purchase of a lift that will let us pick residents up from the floor. Nursing had been asking for one for quite some time, but the injury reports gave them the ammunition they needed to get one approved, as just 1 workman's comp claim would cost more than the lift.

I was thrilled to learn that writing up the injury forms for these minor injuries helped to prevent any major injuries. This is how things should work, but seldom do in real life.