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Investigation on Risk and Damages of Muscoloscheletal Apparatus of Health Care Workers: A Case Study on 3800 Nurses

An investigation was carried out by teams from various centres coordinated by the EPM (Ergonomics of Posture and Movement) Research Unit on 54 different hospitals in various regions of northern and central Italy. The teams examined a total of 3800 health workers whose job involved manual handling of patients. Numerous meetings were held to ensure that the methods of assessing the exposure indexes and spinal impairment were identical in the various teams. The final data were processed centrally at the EPM Research Unit. Physical examination revealed that 8.4% of the workers had had at least one episode of acute low back pain in the previous 12 months: i.e., 4 times the values of the reference groups. The best association between index of exposure to manual patient handling and consequent injury was the association evaluated via the incidence rates of episodes of total low back pain.

Hoists: Selection Criteria and Standards

A fundamental part of the prevention strategies aimed at reducing risk due to manual handling of patients is the use of appropriate aids. This paper defines the basic types of aids for hospital wards and also proposes a procedure for choice of the type of aid. The procedure uses a specific protocol and also analyses work organisation and the environmental features of the ward. The proposed criteria for choice concern at first place the fundamental requirements of the equipment: safety for operator and patient, simplicity of use and comfort for the patient. Secondly the basic determinants for the choice of the type of aid are the kind of disabled patient usually present in the ward, and the analysis of the movements done during patients handling.

A Longitudinal Study of Workers with Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disease after Relocation to Redesigned work Stations

This paper presents a longitudinal study on the return to the workforce of employers with WMSDs of the upper limbs and their reallocation to jobs with “low exposure”. The study started 5 years ago with 100 workers affected by WMSDs and includes now 180 affected workers operating in the same factory. The trial involved: definition of criteria for characterising jobs for affected workers; classifying WMSDs workers according to the type and severity of the disorders. The results, 5 years after the start of the trial, are encouraging and show that when the affected workers return in jobs that full meet the defined criteria, a significant prevalence of improvements are reported.

Methods of Exposure Assessement of Patient Handling Tasks: A New Risk Index (MAPO)

The authors describe and propose a model for identifying the main risk factors in this type of occupational exposure: presence of disabled patients, staff engaged on manual handling of patients, working environment, aids for moving patients, training of workers. For each factor a procedure for assessment is proposed that is easily applicable in practice. The authors also propose a formula for the calculation of a exposure index (MAPO Index), which brings together the various factors. From a practical point of view, in the present state of knowledge, it can be stated that for MAPO Index values between 0 and 1.5, risk is deemed negligible, average for values between 1.51 and 5, and high for values exceeding 5.