Series Overview:

In an average workday, healthcare workers are required to stand or sit for long periods of time and lift heavy, cumbersome weight, often non-ambulatory patients, sometimes in awkward positions or in confined spaces such as bathrooms. As a result, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that healthcare workers have the highest rate of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) of all occupations.

This series helps healthcare workers protect themselves from these injuries through an understanding of basic body mechanics, leverage, balance and the force of gravity to help move more safely, and through the use of lifting strategies and assistive devices to prevent injury.

Overview:

This program demonstrates and describes ways healthcare workers can maintain their own safety and avoid injury when they move, turn, and ambulate patients, and when to obtain the assistance of another person or a lifting device.

Objectives:

After completing this course, the learner should be able to:

• Assess and plan patient moves
• Safely move a patient confined to a bed with and without a lift sheet
• Safely transfer a patient to a chair and wheelchair
• Safely ambulate with a patient
• Safely assist a falling patient to the ground
• Describe when to use a lifting device