Comparative assessment of the risk of manual patient handling between standard methods and job analysis

Abstract

Some tasks performed by healthcare workers, such as the manual patient handling, may lead to musculoskeletal disorders. Exposure to biomechanical overload includes patient handling operations, the pulling and pushing of beds/stretchers (considering the extra weight of the patient. Theese actions could be evaluate thanks to the Snook Ciriello method (ISO 11228). The Center for Ergonomics of the University of Michigan has developed a software able to evaluate the biomechanical overload, which takes into consideration postures or the manual lifting of loads for each task, i.e. the 3DSSPP (Static Strength Prediction Program). The occupational specialist can apply the Job Analysis to determine which tasks should be performed by the worker without being overloaded. Therefore guaranteeing the correct positioning of staff even those affected by musculoskeletal disorders.