Safe Patient Handling Initiative

Preliminary pilot results show use of simple equipment can have great impact on safety

Nurses Amy Hagen (pink scrubs) and Angela D’Nobles demonstrate the proper use of a ceiling-mounted patient lift, which has been shown to greatly reduce the number of patient-handling injuries.

A paralyzed woman lies in bed awaiting her lunch. To swallow, she must eat in an upright position. When lunch arrives, her nurse starts to adjust her position so she can eat safely. He leans over the bed and, with both arms, begins pulling her up…but is stopped short by a searing pain in his back.

This scenario is the most common cause of occupational injuries to nurses, and one easily prevented by using patient lifts.

“In 2001, nurses accounted for 49 percent of all work-related musculoskeletal injuries within the medical center,” says Brenda Myers, ergonomic specialist. “Of those injuries, 92 percent were from patient lifting.”

To address the problem, the Safe Patient Handling Initiative, a collaborative of Safety Management Services and the Nursing Ergonomics Task Force, began a pilot study to learn the most frequent causes of patient handling-related injuries and how to reduce them. Patient lifts were installed on units 6A, 5B and the 5D Surgical Intensive Care Unit in October 2005, when data collection began.

“Preliminary data collected through March 2006 show patient handling injuries to nurses on these units were greatly reduced,” Myers says. “The only injuries that occurred were in cases where patient lift equipment wasn’t used.

”Thanks to additional funding for FY2007, the initiative will expand the pilot to three more units. It is also working with the Patient Lift Team pilot project that includes Materiel Services and Nursing to ascertain the benefits of a lift-team approach to reducing patient handling-related injuries.

For more information, contact Brenda Myers at 734-647-7139 or bmyers@umich.edu.