Saving your back in Rehab

RNKITTY04 · Jan 29, 2005

Use the hoyers as much as possible, I know they are a pain but it's better than ruining your back. Also NEVER try and be superwoman(or man) GET HELP.

Believe me I learned this the hard way.

Chaya, ASN, RN · Jan 29, 2005

I work in a Rehab too. We are required to be checked off at "back school" once a year. Some of the tips i've learned:

-make sure your feet are headed in the direction you're lifting, ie- toward the head of the bed if boosting up in bed.

- make sure the pad or sheet you are using to lift the patient is securely supporting the part of the body below the waist

-for a really large person, put the bed in Trandelenberg while you boost them up

- you can roll almost any patient by shifting their body weight. Bring the arm across the body (right arm if rolling to left). The bend the same leg at the knee and bring it across the body. The patient can usually be rolled into a stable tripod position with weight along the side, steadied by their forearm and knee. Just make sure there is a safe margin of space between the pt and the side of the bed they're rolling toward before you start.

-if transferring from chair to bed or back, make sure they are push off from the arm of the chair they are sitting in and NOT grabbing you to use to pull themself up!

Take care of yourself- we all know how disasterous one false movement can be!

germain · Jan 31, 2005

Thanks! My fellow nurses on the unit are great about taking that extra 1/2 second to do it right. Do any of you do any specific exercises for your back?

ladybyrd · Mar 24, 2005

Worked in rehab for over 12 years with no injury, 'cept the usual aches and pains that go away after a good nite's rest. Our secret: USE CONSISTANT TRANSFER TECHNIQUES FOR EACH PATIENT!

My biggest suggestion: go to the gym with the patient and watch PT teaches that patient for a couple transfers. While many techniques are the same, sometimes techniques have to be revised for patients specific disabilities.

Transfers for quads are totally different than stroke patients. However, left stroke patients and right stroke patients can have different cognitive abilities and their techniques and cuing can be different, even though they both have had "a stroke"

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RATIONALE: To learn a new technique, you first have to learn "the rules" then the variations on those rules.

Remember what it was like in Nursing school when you first learned how to give an injection? It was a new skill that you had never done before, and there were certain key safety elements to master before you could be successful.

Did you have different clinical instructors who used different cues and conflicting instructions, or were you taught the "right way" to do it FIRST...then learn how to adapt the technique for different situations (ie obese patients, emaciated patients, children, combative patients)

If nursing uses a different approach than therapy does, or each nurse says "do it this way" or "that way" the patient will learn inconsistant techniques. Instead of promoting independence and mastry of technique, the patient may learn sloppy habits which can lead to falls when they are in an unsupervised or unstructured environment.

If you can continue to help teach the patient to do the transfers using the same constant approach that therapy is using, the patient is more likely to do the bulk of the "work" of the transfer which will keep both you and the patient from getting hurt!

NurseTech80 · Aug 29, 2006

BOBATH BOBATH BOBATH also known as NDT.... Find a class for it take the class and use it...Im also a Nurse Tech in a rehab hospital and my company had this class for the nursing dept(its usually only for PT's and OT's) i learned so much in this class and it had helped soooooo very much... i can tranfer a 250lb pt by myself with very little effort... Great Class