OSHA to fine hospitals re back injury

AJJKRN · Jul 1, 2015

Mine is a C6-C7 that I have mostly recovered from and worked through with the help the spine clinic, short term meds, and a steroid injection. Was offered an ACDF but was too scared to have back surgery this early in my career...was pulling up a normal sized Pt with the help of another, using "proper body mechanics" when I felt my neck pop :facepalm:

Ruby Vee, BSN · Jul 9, 2015

Eight of us were moving a 500 pound quadriplegic from a regular ICU bed to a specialty bed. I was standing next to a senior student I was precepting. On the count of "3", everyone pushed or pulled except my student. I felt and HEARD a "pop" in my back. I remember saying "I felt that", but there was no pain. Not until the next day, when the back of my right leg was spasming. My husband, the know-it-all nurse, told me "It's because you don't stretch enough." So I went to work, and it got worse throughout the course of the day. The next day, it hurt just to get out of bed, but a shower helped. By the time I had driven to work, I could barely make my right foot work the brake and accelerator. I drove with my left. It wasn't until the third day, when I sat down and my whole right leg went numb that I realized I had a REAL problem. The MRI showed a major herniation.

Eight weeks of PT and back injections, and nothing helped. I had surgery and was off a total of five months and 29 days. My right foot is still numb, but I can walk again! And I'm back at the bedside . . . surely I must be crazy.

Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN · Jul 9, 2015

Hopefully this ends up being an incentive to staff appropriately and provide adequate lift equipment. Sad that staff safety isn't enough of an incentive.

nrsang97, BSN, RN · Jul 9, 2015

Not only back strain, but a shoulder injury.

LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN · Jul 9, 2015

Hopefully this ends up being an incentive to staff appropriately and provide adequate lift equipment. Sad that staff safety isn't enough of an incentive.

Exactly...unfortunately the incentive will be to avoid being fined... :rolleyes:

It boggles my mind that there are still no lift facilities, as well as enough modalities to help move patients safely in facilities.

Pangea Reunited, ASN, RN · Jul 9, 2015

At a prior job, we had some pretty fancy lift equipment available. We also had to go to a storage room on another floor to check it out and have multiple staff available to operate it. 99.9% of the time, we just did the best we could with our own brute strength and hoped for the best. No one had time to do anything else.

AJJKRN · Jul 10, 2015

My whole issue with the "We won't pay for your injury because we provide lift equipment" is that, yes my facility has lift equipment but we still have to physically lift and move the Pt onto slings to utilize it! It just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. :banghead:

alodocios · Nov 7, 2015

c 4-5, shoulder neck and back strain, numb fingers, radiating pain. Permanent restrictions, lost my job. Not from lifting i fell but many of my contemporaries from lifting. We used to have the hover mat, it was easy, then, for some dingbat reason, they changed to this crazy draw sheet kinda thing which meant basically back to lifting. I know it was because the sheet thingy was cheaper. I would say not as cheap as work injuries but I have seen how my hospital handled work injuries. Three people fired before me so I guess the sheet thingy really is cheaper. :no:

NocturneNrse · Nov 7, 2015

Yeah , I got a bad strain and herniation L3-L4 from lifting a pt back into her bed with proper body mechanics. Was out of work for six months fighting work comp insurance company because they denied my claim. Had to use FMLA which I'd expended and received the termination 6 months exactly from injury. Never will return to how I was. That was a fine " how do you do?"

OSHA to fine hospitals re back injury

Have you ever had a back injury at work serious enough to require medical care? SATA