title: Bed care for patients in palliative settings: considering risks to caregivers and bed surfaces.
abstract: Ensuring patients are comfortable in bed is key to effective palliative care, but when moving and positioning patients in bed, health professionals face an occupational risk of injury. The turning and positioning (TAP) system is a new method of moving patients in bed, that evidence has shown to reduce the risk of injury to caregivers. Providing the correct bed surface is another aspect of bed care essential to the comfort of the palliative patient, and to aid wound prevention and treatment. It is important to take a patient-centred approach when considering the most appropriate bed surface patients. This article provides an overview and discussion of these two aspects of bed care for palliative patients.
authors.affiliation: Senior Advisor for Ergonomics, Patient Safety Center of Inquiry, The Villages, Florida.
authors.forename: Guy
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fragala
mesh_terms: D001513:Beds; D017028:Caregivers; D006801:Humans; D016272:Occupational Health; D010166:Palliative Care; D056888:Patient Positioning
keywords: Injury prevention; Patient positioning; Safe patient handling; Turning and positioning patients; Wound prevention