U.S. Backward on Back Injury to Nurses: Halting the Epidemic
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 6, 2003
Nurses
lift an estimated 1.8 tons per shift. 83%
of nurses work in spite of back pain. 60% of nurses fear a disabling
back injury. 12% to
39% of nurses not yet disabled are considering leaving nursing
due to back pain and injuries. 38%
to nearly 50% of nurses will suffer a work-related back injury
during their career. 70% of nurses' back injuries are to the
lumbar spine with 57% to intervertebral discs. 44% of back-injured nurses are unable
to return to their pre-injury position. The
National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has
established 51 lbs. as the safety limit for men to lift (46 lbs.
for women) and 3,400 N (newtons) as the safety limit for compressive
force to lumbar spinal discs. Manual
patient handling, called Òextremely hazardousÓ with Òsubstantial
risk of causing a low-back injury whether with one or two patient
handlers," exerts 3,820 N to 9,170 N of force, approaching
the point where 90% of the population can be expected to suffer
vertebral endplate fractures. Since
the early 1990's, research by William Charney and others has repeatedly
shown that use of safe patient lift equipment and friction-reducing
devices, by either nursing staff or specially-trained lift teams,
leads to dramatic reductions in injuries to nurses and medical
and compensation costs to employers and insurance companies. One
of Charney's studies showed reduction of patient handling injuries
from 22 to 6, lost workdays from 788 to zero, and costs from $242,000
to $14,470. Another study by Charney showed reduction in costs related
to patient handling injuries in two previous years from $63,796
and $20,632 to $336 with restricted duty days dropping from 151
and 171 days to two days. In a study
by Eric Meittunen et al., over
60,000 patient transfers were performed without injury to the
transfer team or to the nursing staff working with the team. With
abundant evidence that use of mechanical patient-lift equipment
drastically curtails injuries to nurses - as well as skin tears
and bruising to patients - most hospitals, unable to perform accurate
cost-benefit analysis of injury prevention, continue using nursing
staff as human lift equipment. When disabled from lifting up
to thousands of pounds every shift, nurses are often
discarded by employers who refuse to provide permanent light duty. Thus, cruel exploitation of nurses, and unnecessary risk of
injury to patients, goes unchecked as nurses are required to perform
hazardous manual lifting and may then be forced out when injured
and unable to continue. So
deeply engrained is the culture of injury acceptance within healthcare
that disabling and discarding nurses is not even mentioned by
many of those reporting on the nursing shortage. Back-injured
nurses are not choosing to leave - they are being disabled by
largely preventable injuries and, with no advocate to intervene,
many are discarded by short-sighted employers. Manual
lifting of patients has been condemned for years by governments
and nursing organizations in other countries. The
under-axilla ÒdragÓ lift, used 98% of the time by American nurses,
is outlawed as unsafe to both nurses and patients by England's
Royal College of Nursing (RCN). No Lift policies by the RCN
and Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) state, ÒStaff should not
attempt to lift any patient manually, whatever their weightÓ and
ÒThe aim is to eliminate hazardous manual handling in all but exceptional
or life-threatening situations.Ó Nurses in England and some
other countries can be disciplined by employers if they manually
lift patients while many American nurses are still required to
do so. With
the U.S. shamefully lagging behind, some other countries are aggressively
protecting nurses from preventable back injury. Sponsored by the Department of Human Services, the Victoria,
Australia, government funded the $7.7 million Victorian Nurses'
Back Injury Prevention Project leading to a 48% reduction in nurses'
back injury WorkCover claims, a 74% reduction in lost days, from
2,856 to 754 days, and a 54% drop in costs related to claims. The
program will recover its costs within a year and will save nearly
$13 million a year on nurse back injury payouts with the health
industry expecting premiums to drop sharply in line with the halving
of claims. In
an effort to halt needless pain, suffering, and financial ruin
associated with preventable back injuries, Back Injury among
Healthcare Workers: Causes, Solutions, and Impacts has just
been released. The first of its kind, the 347-page book is a combination
of academic chapters by experts in their fields exploring causes
and providing solutions to back injury in healthcare from an international
perspective, along with personal stories by back-injured nurses,
exposing impacts of damaged health, lives, and careers following
largely preventable injuries. All nurses required to
lift patients are at extreme risk of severe injury and potential
loss of nursing career. It
is the editors' hope that Back Injury among Healthcare Workers:
Causes, Solutions, and Impacts will expose the unthinkable
wastage of experienced nurses, and lead to implementation of Zero
Lift policies, to enactment by every state of industry-specific
No Manual Lift for Healthcare legislation, and to nursing organizations
negotiating for retention of back-injured nurses. One
hundred percent of proceeds from Back Injury among Healthcare
Workers: Causes, Solutions, and Impacts will go directly to
Work Injured Nurses' Group USA (WING USA) founded by Anne Hudson
as an informational, mutual support, and advocacy group for injured
nurses at www.wingusa.org. For
more info about Back Injury among Healthcare Workers: Causes,
Solutions, and Impacts, go to: Work Injured Nurses' Group
USA: http://www.wingusa.org/book.htm and
CRC Press: http://www.crcpress.com/shopping_cart/products/product_detail.asp?sku=L1631&parent_id=&pc Interview
contacts: In addition to contacts listed below are additional
nurses in the U.S. willing to tell their stories as well as additional
international contacts working toward safe patient handling in
England, Ireland, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, and Holland. William
Charney and Anne Hudson are scheduled to speak at the national
convention of the Association of Occupational Health Professionals
in Healthcare (AOHP), San Diego, CA, Oct 8 to 10, 2003, and can
be reached during that time at the convention site, Bahia Resort
Hotel, 988 W. Mission
Bay Drive, San Diego, CA, 858-539-7700. For
convention info: www.aohp.org. William
Charney, DOH Anne Hudson, RN Maria
Bryson, RN Elizabeth
Langford, RN For
potential availability of a complimentary copy of Back
Injury among Healthcare Workers: Causes, Solutions, and Impacts for
published book reviews, please email Randi Cohen with CRC Press: RCohen@crcpress.com. ###
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