P. Carneiro

Musculoskeletal disorder risk assessment in home care nurses

BACKGROUND Nurses constitute a professional group associated with a high risk of work related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMSDs). Several studies concerning to nurses reveal that they have high prevalence rates of injuries and also of symptoms associated to WRMSDs, mainly in the back. Tasks involving patient handling are those which most often arise associated to back pain. There is a scarcity of studies on WRMSDs in home care nurses. OBJECTIVE Based on these concerns, the main goals of the present study were to identify the main risk factors of WRMSDs for home care nurses and to perform an objective assessment of the risk for these professionals. METHODS Two methods to quantify the risk of WRMSDs associated with nursing activities were applied: REBA - Rapid Entire Body Assessment and MAC - Manual Handling Assessment Charts. REBA and MAC methods were applied to patient handling activities and to tasks involving manual material handling, respectively. RESULTS The results indicate the presence of multiple risk factors and their important contribution to the risk level obtained: generally moderate but considered high for some activities. CONCLUSIONS Home care nursing has specific characteristics, which clearly influence the adoption of risk behaviors by the nurses.

Development and Validation of a Logistic Regression Model to Estimate the Risk of WMSDs in Portuguese Home Care Nurses

Multivariable prediction models are being developed, validated, updated, and implemented in different domains, with the aim of assisting professionals in estimating probabilities and potentially influence their decision making. The main goal of this work was to develop and validate a logistic regression model that would predict the risk of musculoskeletal complaints involving the lumbar region in nurses working at the Health Centres of Northern Portugal and providing home-based care. The main methodology used was a questionnaire developed in electronic format, which was based on the Standardized Nordic Questionnaire for the analysis of musculoskeletal symptoms.

Study of the School Furniture Adequacy to Students’ Anthropometric Dimensions

The discomfort due to poor sitting posture may be related to the lack of suitability of the furniture. This miss-match is often due to the lack of consideration for ergonomic aspects that ensure the combination of anthropometric dimensions of users with the measures of the furniture. These miss-match situations can also be seen in the student work environment, where students spend a lot of time sitting at a desk. The aim of this study was to evaluate if students, who attend a Portuguese public school of elementary education, 2nd and 3rd cycles, use furniture with measures fitting their anthropometric measurements. For this purpose, the anthropometric measurements of all the students, as well as measurements of all tables and chairs from this school were collected. Taking as reference the European standard 1729-1: 2015, it was verified that 73% of the students don’t find a chair/table compatible with their anthropometric dimensions.

Integration of lean manufacturing and ergonomics in a metallurgical industry

Striving to improve productivity, industries have used different management approaches, being lean manufacturing the most used over recent years. Lean manufacturing is based on value creation for the customer and elimination of waste that occurs during the production process, while improving working conditions. The incorporation of ergonomic aspects in the workstation design also contributes for the referred objectives, since it will reduce awkward postures or excessive effort during work, leading to better working conditions and increased productivity. The present study highlights, through a case study in four production areas of a metallurgical industry, the benefits of using an integrated operations management approach to improve productivity and ergonomic aspects. Several ergonomic methods, such as Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA), Strain Index (SI), and Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA), were chosen to evaluate the ergonomic situation and lean manufacturing tools such as Value Stream Mapping (VSM) and 7 wastes were also used to analyze the systems and increase the productivity by eliminating several wastes. The results of this study show that it is possible, and desirable, to consider both aspects, ergonomic conditions and productivity, during continuous improvement’ implementations. In fact, the improvements reached through the advances in ergonomic conditions can contribute very positively for productivity increasing.

Chemical and Biological Risks in Professionals Working in Operating Rooms

Certain health professionals are at risk of having work-related accidents, mainly due to the contact with biological and chemical materials. The operating room is a place where this type of accident occurs frequently.

Ergonomic design intervention in a coating production area

The aim of this study is to redesign two workstations in a PVD coating production area, considering productivity and ergonomic aspects. Through the elimination of wastes such as unnecessary movements and transportations and by reducing the awkward postures as arm flexion larger than 45o, the productivity in the loading and unloading workstations increased 9% and 5%, respectively, and the ergonomic risk was improved from medium to acceptable. RULA was the chosen method to evaluate the ergonomic situation and anthropometric studies were performed to find the ideal ergonomic solution. This study shows the importance to consider ergonomic conditions when designing or redesigning a workstation in order to get effective productivity improvements. calized muscle fatigue, and consequently in decreased performance and productivity, and enhanced possibility of operator related health hazards (Corlett et al., 1982). The aim of this work is to answer the research question: “How can be improved the workstation design of loading and unloading processes of a PVD coat production area, considering ergonomic aspects and productivity?” This case study takes place in a PVD coating production area, where workers’ complaints due to shoulder pains were rising considerably. These com-plaints come mainly from the processes of loading and unloading pieces from the suspension, before and after the product entering the PVD machine, respectively. This is a repetitive job and involves several awkward postures such as: flexion of the arms above 45o (from now on “arms up”), trunk flexion, and move manually heavy suspensions. Being such a specific case study, an identical case was not found in the literature. The paper is structured as follows: the section 2 explains the methods used to evaluate the initial situation followed by the methods used to redesign the workstation; section 3 provides a discussion of the main results and section 4 points out some conclusions and recommendations.