PubMed · 11002800
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K Warthington. 2000. Watch your back.. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11002800/
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Recent discussions over the plight of a woman who had spent a year sleeping in her wheelchair because the local NHS trust refused to allow her to be lifted into bed highlight the dilemma facing nurses when they are required to manually handle patients (Andrews and Robinson 2003). Nurses are acutely aware that the manual handling of patients can result in back injury (McGuire and Dewar 1993). Yet they are also aware that they owe a duty to patients to provide nursing care to meet their needs and that might only be achieved through manual handling. There is evidence that hospitals in particular have still not met the requirements of the Manual Handling Operations Regulations (Trevelyan 2000). The hazards of working in the community environment have generally been better addressed as part of the assessment for and delivery of individual care packages. This article considers the law's approach to balancing the opposing needs of nurses' and patients' health needs.
This paper reports findings from a study which evaluated the draft New Zealand Code of Practice for Manual Handling. The evaluation assessed the ease of use, applicability and validity of the Code and in particular the associated manual handling hazard assessment tools, within New Zealand industry. The Code was studied in a sample of eight companies from four sectors of industry. Subjective feedback and objective findings indicated that the Code was useful, applicable and informative. The manual handling hazard assessment tools incorporated in the Code could be adequately applied by most users, with risk assessment outcomes largely consistent with the findings of researchers using more specific ergonomics methodologies. However, some changes were recommended to the risk assessment tools to improve usability and validity. The evaluation concluded that both the Code and the tools within it would benefit from simplification, improved typography and layout, and industry-specific information on manual handling hazards.
Nursing personnel are at high risk from work-related musculoskeletal disorders, especially back symptoms. Handling patients has been established as one of the factors playing an important role in the etiology of occupational low back pain. The aim of this study was to develop an instrument for patient handling assessment and to determine its validity and reliability. Instrument validity was established based on content and construct validity. Reliability was estimated through homogeneity, stability (test-retest) and equivalence (interrater) tests. Reliability estimated by internal consistency reached a Cronbach's Alpha coefficient of 0.81. Pearson's correlation coefficient for test-retest reliability was r = 0.92. There was an excellent agreement between observers, according to the k values (Kappa = 0.92). Interobserver (interrater) reliability was assessed by Pearson's correlation coefficient, reaching an r value of 0.84. The agreement between both observers was also fairly good (Kappa = 0.84). The results of the current study show that the instrument seems to be reliable and valid for patient handling assessment.