These papers get into a lot of detail but if you’re interested in the details of how we compared floor and overhead lifts here you go:

The first shows that floor lifts are unsafe to use even if you have two nurses but an overhead lift is safe to be used by a nurse working alone. The second demonstrates a further drawback of floor lifts which is that they are associated with a learning curve and that inexperienced nurses have a harder time using them than more experienced nurses. This difference is not present with overhead lifts.

A biomechanical assessment of floor and overhead lifts using one or two caregivers for patient transfers – 2011

The effects of caregiver experience on low back loads during floor and overhead lift maneuvering activities – 2011

Liko, a company that sells patient lifting tools put up an excellent online resource called the safe lifting portal for caregivers to educate themselves on patient lifting issues. Perhaps the most useful feature of this site is their Ask the Lift Doctor feature where caregivers are able to write in their own questions. The service targets the massive need to get credible information to clinicians on the front lines. The Lift Doctor provides practical solutions that often involve the use of a Liko product as one might expect.

After following the Lift Doctor’s responses for several years, I’ve noticed advice from the site isn’t always consistent with our latest understanding about the capabilities of the body and the spine in particular. In fact, the Lift Doctor is sometimes inconsistent from one answer to the next.

One example of this inconsistency is seen in the response to the following two questions:

1)

“Can I get the NIOSH lifting limit reference of 35 lbs please.”

The Lift Doctor provides two links:

The first link … provides an extensive evaluation of the NIOSH source equation and measurements involved in a cross sectional epidemiologic study.

The second link, an AJN article by NIOSH scientist Dr. Tom Waters, explains how the complexities involved in patient handling tasks lead to the 35 lb recommended limit.

I found this response was clear and the references were consistent with our current understanding of spine biomechanics.

2)

“Why are the pink incontinence pads unsuitable for lifting patients up in bed?”

The Lift Doctor starts on the right foot here and points out the importance of safety “… for both patients AND for caregivers.” But , he goes on to only point out that “ incontinence pads were not designed for repositioning,” and because “you will be dragging the patient’s heels and elbows across the bed sheet…” there is a risk of “…skin breakdown.” He does include the vague suggestion that one “…may need to seek assistance from additional caregivers.”

However, the Lift Doctor misses an important point about how to safely boost patients up in bed. He doesn’t point out the 35lbs limit caregivers should use along with the skin breakdown concerns. A better response would have highlighted the risk of injury due to lifting more than 35lbs with reference to the article by Tom Waters from the first response. Boosting a patient up in bed, whether you have one or two caregivers, could easily exceeding this limit. The Lift Doctor should have pointed out that if this activity required lifting more than 35lbs, it is unsafe to proceed without the use of a mechanical lift.

Over the next few weeks, I plan to add to some of the lift doctor’s responses that I feel are incomplete based on my understanding of how to prevent back injuries in nurses.

]]> http://nursebackinjury.wordpress.com/2011/11/14/likos-lift-doctor/feed/ 0 tilakdutta http://nursebackinjury.wordpress.com/2011/11/04/toileting-robot-by-toyota/ http://nursebackinjury.wordpress.com/2011/11/04/toileting-robot-by-toyota/#comments Fri, 04 Nov 2011 19:01:26 +0000 Tilak Dutta http://nursebackinjury.wordpress.com/?p=18 ]]>

Toileting is tough on caregivers. The  ability to get someone onto a toilet can mean the difference between being continent or sitting in wet diapers for a good part of the day. But for patients that can’t walk, getting someone from a bed to the toilet is a big deal and will result in a back injury eventually if a mechanical lift isn’t used. Toyota’s robot seems to do a lot of things well. However, it’s difficult to know how the patient feels – it looks like the patient may feel vulnerable.  A couple of other products are discussed along with the toileting robot here.

This video highlights some key findings from my PhD that I think nurses may find useful.

]]> http://nursebackinjury.wordpress.com/2011/08/10/preventing-back-injury-in-nurses/feed/ 2 tilakdutta http://nursebackinjury.wordpress.com/2011/08/10/caregivers-and-back-injury-forward/ http://nursebackinjury.wordpress.com/2011/08/10/caregivers-and-back-injury-forward/#comments Wed, 10 Aug 2011 21:39:58 +0000 Tilak Dutta http://nursebackinjury.wordpress.com/?p=5 ]]>

A forward to my video summary on what I’ve learned during my PhD about preventing back injury in nurses.