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Transferring people safely with manual handling equipment

Transferring people safely with manual handling equipment
Transferring people safely with manual handling equipment
Objective: To determine whether transferring equipment designed to assist a carer when moving someone who is able to take some weight through their legs is likely to affect the risk of back problems in the carer.
Design: Twelve pieces of equipment were tested by nurses transferring patients from commode to wheelchair and vice versa, and from wheelchair to bed and vice versa. Video recordings were taken of each transfer and freeze-frame pictures at the moment of greatest load were analysed. Compressive disc force was deduced, using a biomechanical model, from the weights of the patient and nurse and measurements of anatomical distances and angles.
Setting: The Sir Walter Puckey Gait Laboratory, in the Rehabilitation Research Unit, University of Southampton.
Subjects: Six female trained nurses with no recent history of hernia, back pain or pregnancy during the previous six months were recruited to use the equipment. Two female patients were chosen from those volunteering and screened for stroke, confusion and unusual footwear. The patients were able to partially weight-bear and were used to being transferred.
Results: The results indicate that the critical value of 3.4 kN at the L5/S1 disc (specified by the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) was not exceeded when using transferring equipment. Conclusion: In this study, loading on the spine during transferring tasks with or without equipment was not considered harmful when good technique was employed.
0269-2155
329-337
Allen, R.
956a918f-278c-48ef-8e19-65aa463f199a
Jackson, S.
537ff7c4-938c-4163-8da1-58d882df5c10
Marsden, H.
57a7fc40-8338-42cb-b543-1e779085f008
McLellan, D.L.
2d9b8bb6-9ea8-442e-acfb-5bb0dc8511a0
Gore, S.
aca42b1d-dc18-4415-acdf-fd8b1d4f67a6
Allen, R.
956a918f-278c-48ef-8e19-65aa463f199a
Jackson, S.
537ff7c4-938c-4163-8da1-58d882df5c10
Marsden, H.
57a7fc40-8338-42cb-b543-1e779085f008
McLellan, D.L.
2d9b8bb6-9ea8-442e-acfb-5bb0dc8511a0
Gore, S.
aca42b1d-dc18-4415-acdf-fd8b1d4f67a6

Allen, R., Jackson, S., Marsden, H., McLellan, D.L. and Gore, S. (2002) Transferring people safely with manual handling equipment. Clinical Rehabilitation, 16 (3), 329-337.

Record type: Article

Abstract

Objective: To determine whether transferring equipment designed to assist a carer when moving someone who is able to take some weight through their legs is likely to affect the risk of back problems in the carer.
Design: Twelve pieces of equipment were tested by nurses transferring patients from commode to wheelchair and vice versa, and from wheelchair to bed and vice versa. Video recordings were taken of each transfer and freeze-frame pictures at the moment of greatest load were analysed. Compressive disc force was deduced, using a biomechanical model, from the weights of the patient and nurse and measurements of anatomical distances and angles.
Setting: The Sir Walter Puckey Gait Laboratory, in the Rehabilitation Research Unit, University of Southampton.
Subjects: Six female trained nurses with no recent history of hernia, back pain or pregnancy during the previous six months were recruited to use the equipment. Two female patients were chosen from those volunteering and screened for stroke, confusion and unusual footwear. The patients were able to partially weight-bear and were used to being transferred.
Results: The results indicate that the critical value of 3.4 kN at the L5/S1 disc (specified by the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) was not exceeded when using transferring equipment. Conclusion: In this study, loading on the spine during transferring tasks with or without equipment was not considered harmful when good technique was employed.

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More information

Published date: 2002

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 10878
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/10878
ISSN: 0269-2155
PURE UUID: 50a63c09-d067-4fcd-9b01-e78ede6c5e73

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 14 Jul 2005
Last modified: 08 Jan 2022 03:43

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Contributors

Author: R. Allen
Author: S. Jackson
Author: H. Marsden
Author: D.L. McLellan
Author: S. Gore

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