Every day in this country, 9000 healthcare workers sustain a disabling injury while performing job-related tasks and many of these unfortunate health care workers are registered nurses. Sometime these injuries can be debilitating, career-ending and life altering. They can result to lost work time or sometimes permanent disability. The Bureau of Labor and Statistics in 2006 first started to survey non-fatal injuries in the workplace and revealed that one of the highest rates were among nursing staff. An estimated 12% of nurses leave nursing annually because of back injuries and more than half complain of chronic back pain. As a future nurse, this is startling and makes me apprehensive to work in a hospital environment with patient care, breaking my back was not part of my job description (www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/ osh2_11082012.htm.)
According to the American Nurse Association thirty-five years of research show that training alone is not effective. There is also little evidence that gait belts are effective. It is also a complete myth that just because a nurse is physically fit, they are less
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Three risk factors for sustaining a musculoskeletal injury is repeated lifting, transferring, and repositioning patients. The best way to fix this problem is with four different strategies. The best way to help nurses prevent back injuries is to reeducate nurses on proper body mechanics. Every hospital needs to have a well-trained lifting team to day and night shift nurses. Hospitals need the most modern mechanical lifting equipment to keep up with heavier set patients Also there needs to be new policies and procedures that have clear instructions on a new method of handling patients (Lancman, R., K. L. T. Wright, and R. Gottfried.