Manual Handling in Nursing

Manual Handling in Nursing

Introduction

I have chosen this topic because Manual Handling Competencies for Nurses provides standards that nurses can use within their professional practice. They describe the knowledge, skills and attitudes that need to be applied by nurses within their range of activities to minimise manual handling risks to themselves and others. The standards are not a curriculum for a nursing course. They seek to answer the following types of questions.

• What capabilities are expected of nurses in relation to manual handling?

• What, if any, differences are expected in the manual handling capabilities of nurses working in different areas of nursing?

• What, if any, differences are expected of a novice nurse compared to that of an experienced nurse or nurse manager?

It is hoped that the standards will be used as a reference point for curriculum development in undergraduate and postgraduate education as well as workplace training for nurses, whatever the area and level of nursing. These standards may also form a useful reference for related health professionals and ancillary staff in the health sector. The standards assume that all registered and enrolled nurses are familiar with and meet the National Competency Standards for Registered Nurses and Enrolled Nurses in Recommended Domains (ANCI 1993) for beginning practice. The standards do not seek to describe all the functions and performance domains of a nurse. The approach focuses on the specific activities, responsibilities, knowledge, skills and attributes of nurses in relation to manual handling.

Research Question

"How does the incident of manual handling injuries occur when there is a "no lift no injury" policy implemented?"

Area of Research

Under-reporting injuries by health care workers continues to be a significant occupational safety problem (Pransky et al., 1999; Wedle, 1996). The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires employers to maintain logs of worker injuries so that appropriate risk reduction measures can be implemented in those industries that have disproportionately high rates of injuries.

The Search Engines Used

Online databases were accessed to get the most relevant and updated literature. Some of the online databases that were used are: EBSCO, Emerald, Blackwell, etc.

The Key Words

Manual Handling, Nursing, health care workers, occupational injuries

Hits: 06

10 Selected Articles:

American Nurses Association (2001), "Nurses say health and safety concerns play major role in employment decisions", press release, September, available at: www.nursingworld.org/, .

Blegen, M.A., Vaughn, T., Pepper, G., Vojir, C., Stratton, K., Boyd, M., Armstrong, G. (2004), "Patient and staff safety: voluntary reporting", American Journal of Medical Quality, Vol. 19 No.2, pp.67-74.

Dejoy, D.M. (1996), "Theoretical models of health behavior and workplace self-protective behavior", Journal of Safety Research, Vol. 27 pp.61-72.

Doebbeling, B.N., Vaughn, T.E., McCoy, K.D., Beekmann, S.E., Woolson, R.F., Ferguson, K.J., Torner, J.C. (2003), "Percutaneous injury, blood exposure, and adherence to standard precautions: are hospital-based health care providers still at risk?", Clinical Infectious Diseases, Vol. 37 No.8, pp.1006-13.

Evanoff, B., Abedin, S., Grayson, D., Dale, A.M., Wolf, L., Bohr, P. (2002), "Is disability underreported following work injury?", Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation, Vol. 12 No.3, pp.139-50.

Fingar, A.R., Hopkins, R.S., Nelson, ...