Heavy Lifting Help

One of the greatest safety risks to healthcare workers could be reduced if more training and coaching were available, an Institute for Work & Health (IWH) study has found. 

A peer-coaching program to help healthcare workers use patient lifts resulted in a large drop in injuries. The program was introduced in BC across 15 long term care facilities between 2006 and 2011, leading to a 34 percent reduction in injury rates and a 56 percent drop after the program was over. 

“Our calculations show that 62 lost-time claims were prevented as a result of this coaching program,” says Dr. Emile Tompa, labour economist and senior scientist at IWH who led the study. 

To reduce the demands of patient handling, many jurisdictions in Canada have introduced patient lifts and policies, eliminating the manual lifting of patients. But the IWH study suggests that proper training and peer coaching are needed to further eliminate injury. 

Source: iwh.on.ca