Truth behind lifting patients

RNperdiem, RN · Jul 27, 2010

I weigh 105lbs. I rarely encounter a patient smaller than me. If a patient falls during an assist, they will just have to fall though luckily this has never happened to me in the 15 years I have been in the business.

"Lifting" makes what we do sound pretty straightforward, like simple weight lifting at the gym.

I wonder if the studies take into account that we really do a lot more sliding, turning and boosting. These use different body mechanics.

RNperdiem, RN · Jul 27, 2010

Does your hospital use Maxi-slides for sliding patients? This is the one piece of lifting assist equipment I can't live without.

sunnycalifRN · Jul 27, 2010

Where I work, we have a stated goal of "No manual lifting". I know it sounds, "Pie in the sky", but the hospital is installing ceiling lifts in every patient room, in the morgue, in the ER . . . they're not all in place yet, but eventually they will be.

I went to a Safe Patient Handling conference in Orlando, FL last year. At that conference, the basic premise is that no healthcare worker should ever do a manual lift. Even with "good body mechanics", you can still injure your back.

We're using "hovermats" to transfer patients from gurney to bed, or gurney to procedure table. We're using sliding mats also.

Now, acceptance is not universal, by any means . . . many RN's think the lifting devices are for "wimps" . . . but, I can tell you, as an RN who has already injured his back once, I'm more than happy to use them.

Also, at the conference, a physiologist presented great research on the stress on the body during lifting but I don't have the citation, but, I'll look for it.

dnnc52 · Jul 28, 2010

Great info

lylenrn · Jul 28, 2010

I cant give your the research on outcomes with proper body mechanics. But my chiropractor has more nurses on his patient list than any other profession.

Hoozdo, ADN · Jul 28, 2010

We're using "hovermats" to transfer patients from gurney to bed, or gurney to procedure table. We're using sliding mats also.
Now, acceptance is not universal, by any means . . . many RN's think the lifting devices are for "wimps" . . . but, I can tell you, as an RN who has already injured his back once, I'm more than happy to use them.
Also, at the conference, a physiologist presented great research on the stress on the body during lifting but I don't have the citation, but, I'll look for it.

BUT, the problem I have using a hover mat is that you have to put it UNDER

the patient to use it. You have to lift them to put it under them. Then they have

to be squared over the hover mat before inflation.

It does make pulling up in bed 95% easier though. If we could only find a way

to easily turn the super morbidly obese to clean them and change their sheets, I

would be a happy camper.

dnnc52 · Jul 28, 2010

My fear is that I am already at an unfair advantage, regardless of what people think I am an older nurse. In spite of my experience and the fact that I do keep up with the latest trends, hey (after all I'm on all nurse) and I have both my Geri and med/surg certifications. I am not the first applicant they pull to review. So it looks like I will have a job but that's not a sure thing. Disability is no an option, I in a to young to die and to old to start over again'' situation when it comes to careers. My pain is controlled with valium and lortab. At this point and of course as any nurse I am not taking max dose, I could just see adding an addiction to the page of my new book of problems. I have left thigh weakness, saddle numbness; the cort shot in the spine did nothing at all. So Friday its to surgery for a decompression lam. I am wanting to believe that I be up and back to par in a few weeks. But I know again from watching others some just go downhill at my age. So it's just a wait and see....But if this happens to me I will one of the worse Bitc__speaking out against lack of working conditions that we go through. All the way from the room arrangements, to the way the stock the cabinets, and the chairs and nursing station design. It's time for us to speak out about our condtions, lack of staff. Sure if I could have had another member help me lift, and pull pts up in the beds, and I was even told and we all feel it that CPR in one of the worse things we do for our backs at times. But I'll suffer those consequences for something like that. But run and answer the damn call light because we have ways of determining how long it takes to get a pt a box of tissue when they want it. Oh yeah maybe nursing in general would be better off without me. I would be at every pro-nurse rally I could limp into to. Oh well perhaps it's the loran got be going off. Forgive me but that's for the info.....

3rdcareerRN · Jul 28, 2010

Let me introduce a little bit of science into the discussion, by quoting a research representative:

"...The risk of musculoskeletal disorders resulting from patient handling results from the high internal forces created in the spine when a person lifts a heavy object. Musculoskeletal disorders are a high risk for patient handling because it can require lifting a patient who is far away from the worker which puts heavy loads on the spine. Repeated lifting of this type can result in scarring that causes more damage. Studies have suggested that that there can be risks of injury even when two people are lifting a 110 lb patient from a bed to a chair.[8]

NIOSH {National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health} recommends that no caregiver should manually lift more than 35 lbs of a person's body weight for a vertical lifting task.[9] NIOSH further recommends that when the weight to be lifted exceeds this limit, assistive devices should be used. These recommendations have been adopted by the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and incorporated into its current patient handling recommendations and patient handling algorithms. Moreover, other major interest groups, such as the American Nurses Association (ANA), National Association of Orthopaedic Nurses (NAON), and Association of Perioperative Registered Nurses (AORN) have all adopted similar patient handling guidelines that recommend use of technology-based solutions for patient handling and movement.[10],[11],[12]

..."

Source: http://www.hhs.gov/asl/testify/2010/05/t20100511a.html {boldface added}

As an occ-health nurse, I want to protect caregivers' backs!

carolmaccas66, BSN, RN · Jul 28, 2010

When I did weights with a professional body builder, he said you have to train for years & actually learn how to lift correctly (he had trained & done competitions for about 20 years). But he also said people who were not professional body builders & who were usually unfit should not be lifting over a certain weight EVER, even with proper techniques. The average human body is not designed for it. Makes sense when you think about it. When I was younger & doing nurse assistant work, we were told to lift patients but I never did. I have seen too many nurses on the worker's comp merry go round, & they get treated like c**p. They dedicated their working lives to helping people & that is how they end up: with sore backs & debts to boot, & can't get employed even at a desk job. I knew an older nurse who was told to lift wrong for years & when her back gave out, the hospital said she couldn't prove anything against them! She did get worker's comp but she was treated as if she was just a nuisance and not a valued worker who had stayed in the one place for years.

Thank God I have never lifted a fallen patient - if they fall, let em fall. People are also fatter & heavier now; I always refuse to life anyone and anything. My back and legs are too precious to risk, especially now I am getting older.

sunnycalifRN · Jul 28, 2010

BUT, the problem I have using a hover mat is that you have to put it UNDER
the patient to use it. You have to lift them to put it under them. Then they have
to be squared over the hover mat before inflation.
It does make pulling up in bed 95% easier though. If we could only find a way
to easily turn the super morbidly obese to clean them and change their sheets, I
would be a happy camper.

Yes, you are correct. We will be getting "turning slings" for use with the overhead lifts, so that we don't have to even roll the morbidly obese patient onto the hovermat . . . but, you still have to get the sling in place. So, until the day that we are able to "use the force" and levitate patients with our minds, there will always be some use of our muscles.

However, using the hovermat, two caregivers can transfer a 450 lb patient onto the procedure table!! It used to take 6, to do it safely!!

BTW, do you have the "hover lift" (not the correct name) device, for getting a fallen patient back to bed? These air lifts have probably "saved" many RN's backs!!

Our hospital system is spending millions to institute the "No manual lifting" mandate . . . if only we could get more RN's to adopt the use of the lifting aids!!!

dnnc52 · Jul 28, 2010

WOW! This post is getting HEAVY a play on words. I wish that more of our co-workers knew about the guidelines on lifting and the harm that we are doing to ourselves by being the good corp supper nurse who can just do it all without the proper staffing. So here we go again when we talk about pt/nurse ratio how many times with staffing to we take the "not only is pt in RM 200 a total care but also 400 lbs, under consideration?. Good old satffing by numbers!