title: A Review of Patient Lifting Interventions to Reduce Health Care Worker Injuries.
abstract: Health care workers suffer from musculoskeletal disorders at a significantly higher rate than workers in other industries. Consequently, a growing demand for patient handling devices to reduce worker injury has evolved. This article reviews the literature regarding interventions designed to reduce injuries among health care workers. A PubMed search was conducted using the terms "occupational health [Mesh Terms] patient lifting." Fourteen articles were identified that assessed interventions to improve worker safety. Of the 14 articles, 7 discussed technological interventions, 4 educational approaches, and 3 policy change. All three types of interventions were generally effective at improving worker safety, with the ideal intervention consisting of elements of all three types. Although adopting a new intervention may be expensive, the reduction in workers' compensation costs associated with injured nurses can easily outweigh the costs of interventions.
authors.affiliation: Wake Forest School of Medicine.
authors.forename: Imran
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Aslam
authors.affiliation: Wake Forest School of Medicine.
authors.forename: Scott A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.affiliation: Wake Forest School of Medicine sfeldman@wakehealth.edu.
authors.forename: Steven R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Feldman
authors.affiliation: Martin Innovations.
authors.forename: Willis E
authors.initials: WE
authors.lastname: Martin
mesh_terms: D006282:Health Personnel / Q000193:education / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D055805:Moving and Lifting Patients / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D009140:Musculoskeletal Diseases / Q000517:prevention & control*; D009729:Nursing / Q000379:methods; D016272:Occupational Health / Q000592:standards*; D060051:Occupational Injuries / Q000517:prevention & control
keywords: back injury; education; lift devices; musculoskeletal injury; nursing; occupational health; safe patient handling