By Meghan McGowan
Read time: 4 mins.
Nurses are some of the most dedicated, hardworking, and valuable members of their communities. Unfortunately, they’re also some of the most at-risk for on-the-job injuries. Of the many causes of workplace injuries for nurses, patient transfers are among the most critical. While daily transfers are crucial to patient wellbeing, they can create significant risks for the nurses who perform them.
National Nurses’ Week, which extends from May 6-12 this year, is the time to focus on supporting nurses and reducing the physical demands and risks they face.
Dynarex offers a range of lifts and slings to support safe patient transfers.
What are Patient Transfers?
Patient transfers happen when a caregiver moves a patient with limited mobility, like from a bed to a wheelchair. This process is not only necessary to facilitate a patient’s daily hygiene, but helps prevent issues like pressure wounds, maintain a patient’s dignity, and improve their mental health.
Transfer Injury Risks: How Nurses Get Hurt
During manual patient lifting, nurses move patients with their own strength and body power. This strenuous process requires caregivers to bear the patient’s entire weight, which only becomes more difficult with patients with partial or total paralysis, heavier patients, or agitated patients. This process is not only prone to harming nurses, but patients as well. Proper lifting form can help lessen the risk, but only marginally.
Overexertion is one of the most frequently reported injuries among registered nurses. Most transfer-related injuries arise from reaching, bending, or twisting while moving or repositioning a patient. Common types can include:
- Shoulder and low back strains and sprains
- Shoulder and wrist overuse injuries
- Herniated discs
- Rotator cuff injuries
How Patient Lifts Work
Mechanical patient lifts use a variety of power sources to raise patients in slings that attach to the structure. They help to reduce injury risks for caregivers and patients, as well as streamlining workflows. For instance, the wheels on lifts allow nurses to move patients directly from bed to bathtubs or toilets, eliminating additional transfers. Lifts can include built-in scales to simplify tracking patient weight. Furthermore, mechanical lifts can often complete transfers in less time than manual lifting, an invaluable benefit for busy nurses.
Multiple types of lifts and slings are available, including:
- Hydraulic lifts: operated via a hand pump that transfers hydraulic fluid between cylinders for simple, reliable operation
- Electric lifts: battery-operated and rechargeable, offering smooth motion
- Ceiling lifts: ceiling-mounted tracks lift and move patients seamlessly without wasting floor space
- Sit-to-stand lifts: apply lifting power at the hips and low back to help patients with limited mobility stand up, ideal for building strength and function during rehabilitation
A range of sling styles support different transfer needs, including full body slings that hold the patient like a chair, commode opening slings that support toilet access, and slings to raise the upper body or legs for repositioning.
Communication and Cooperation: The Role of Management
Despite the importance of safe transfers and the difference that mechanical lifts can make, manual transfers and transfer-related injuries are still common. Workplace culture plays a part in this issue; nurses may worry that coworkers and supervisors will see them as weak, lazy, or inefficient if they use a lift. The availability of patient lifts in a facility also has a major role in caregiver injury risks.
OSHA provides important guidelines for improving safety around patient transfers, emphasizing the importance of caregiver-management cooperation, adequate lift availability, and building a culture of workplace safety.
In short, one of the most helpful ways a facility can work to reduce injuries is for management to acknowledge the risks involved in patient transfers, and their responsibility to provide injury-preventing equipment. Working with staff directly to determine their needs and building an environment that encourages blame-free accident reporting and judgement-free use of mechanical lifts allows both nurses and patients to reap the benefits.
Protecting Nurses Where It Counts
The importance of nurses in healthcare cannot be overstated, nor can the importance of keeping nurses safe and healthy. From hospitals to long-term care, today’s medical environments are building towards cultures and environments that support the wellbeing of their nurses, so that they can continue to support the wellbeing of their patients.
Explore Dynarex lifts and slings today.