Musculoskeletal disorders and injuries associated with patient handling and mobility have been a healthcare risk for many years. Nurses have often been blamed for their own injuries, as illustrated in this quote from Nursing: Its Principles and Practices, the first major nursing textbook: “Occasionally the complaint is made that a nurse has injured her back or strained herself in some way in moving a patient. This will generally be because she has failed to do the lifting properly” (Hampton, 1893, p. 90). Although this book was printed over 123 years ago, the perception that the nurse is responsible for not lifting properly persists today. Furthermore, extensive research suggests despite training, nursing staff perceive they have no control
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P., Cheung, K., & Pang, S. M. (2012). Attributes of nursing work environment as predictors of registered nurses’ job satisfaction and intention to leave. Journal of Nursing Management, 21(3), 429-439. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2834.2012.01415.x
The authors explored the nursing environment using a cross-sectional survey involving 1271 registered nurses over a 3-month period. Findings of this study supported the PICOT. Nurses overall perception of their work environment was related to their sense of job satisfaction. Work environment included staffing, management support as well as resources for facilities, equipment, and assistive devices to prevent injuries. Management staff were depicted as not spending time understanding nursing personnel thoughts, not showing understanding of their heavy workload, and communication not valued. Offering support, maintaining communication, improving work conditions and facilitating nursing practice by providing necessary resources to facilitate patient care is imperative (Choi, Cheung, & Pang, …show more content…
Peer-reviewed publications between 1992 and 2010 were reviewed. The aim of the study was to examine how sub-optimal patient handling practice would lead to patient adverse events. There is a correlation with patient comfort and safety with manual handling techniques. Measures to improve the safety of nurses during patient transfer work, such as training in transfer technique and provision of transferring aids, may be important for the patients’ safety and well-being. The author discusses a conceptual mode to provide a balance perspective for managers between clinical risk (adverse events causing harm to patients) and occupational risk of a work-related musculoskeletal disorder to nursing staff during patient manual handling. The conceptual model provides a more balanced and patient-centered approach to patient handling, with the focus being on teaching natural body movement and listening to patient needs with their mobility, requiring a change of emphasis with patient manual handling training (Griffiths,
P., Cheung, K., & Pang, S. M. (2012). Attributes of nursing work environment as predictors of registered nurses’ job satisfaction and intention to leave. Journal of Nursing Management, 21(3), 429-439. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2834.2012.01415.x
The authors explored the nursing environment using a cross-sectional survey involving 1271 registered nurses over a 3-month period. Findings of this study supported the PICOT. Nurses overall perception of their work environment was related to their sense of job satisfaction. Work environment included staffing, management support as well as resources for facilities, equipment, and assistive devices to prevent injuries. Management staff were depicted as not spending time understanding nursing personnel thoughts, not showing understanding of their heavy workload, and communication not valued. Offering support, maintaining communication, improving work conditions and facilitating nursing practice by providing necessary resources to facilitate patient care is imperative (Choi, Cheung, & Pang, …show more content…
Peer-reviewed publications between 1992 and 2010 were reviewed. The aim of the study was to examine how sub-optimal patient handling practice would lead to patient adverse events. There is a correlation with patient comfort and safety with manual handling techniques. Measures to improve the safety of nurses during patient transfer work, such as training in transfer technique and provision of transferring aids, may be important for the patients’ safety and well-being. The author discusses a conceptual mode to provide a balance perspective for managers between clinical risk (adverse events causing harm to patients) and occupational risk of a work-related musculoskeletal disorder to nursing staff during patient manual handling. The conceptual model provides a more balanced and patient-centered approach to patient handling, with the focus being on teaching natural body movement and listening to patient needs with their mobility, requiring a change of emphasis with patient manual handling training (Griffiths,