Increasing Safety for Assisted Motion During Caregiving: Comparative Analysis of a Critical Care Nurse and a Care Worker Transferring a Simulated Care-Receiver

Abstract

It is said that nurses and care workers take different approaches when assisting the transfer of patients or care-receivers. For example, even on the same purpose, in case of the transfer assistance of a patient or care receiver from a bed to a wheelchair, they take different approaches. In our previous study, the transfer assistance motions of a care worker and a critical care nurse were observed when they were assisting a simulated care-receiver (hereinafter referred to as SCR) or simulated patient (hereinafter referred to as SP) to be transferred from a bed to a wheelchair using a slide board. Their motions were measured by the motion capture to comparatively analyze the differences. As a result, the both care worker and critical care nurse assisted the transfer the SCR and the SP using the same care-assistance device, but they took different approaches in each phase. The reason for the differences is attributed to their daily working circumstance or style how to assist care-receivers or patients. Care workers usually conduct the transfer assistance at elderly nursing facilities or individual homes of care-receivers, whereas nurses usually assist patients at hospitals. We arrived at the conclusion that environmental factors such as the difference in room sizes, room layouts, or whether the place where they are working is for medical treatment or daily life, are likely the main cause for the care workers and the nurses in each situation to create their own unique transfer assistance method [1]. As aforementioned, although care workers and nurses take different approaches, their purpose is the same, just to assist care-receivers or patients to be transferred safely. This is the most important thing what they have to bear in their mind. The purpose of this study is to clarify what kind of safety measures care workers or nurses take in their transfer assistance. We assigned one care worker and one nurse who is specializing in the critical care as test subjects and asked them to assist a simulated care-receiver (SCR) or a simulated patient (SP) to be transferred from a bed to a portable toilet. Their motions were measured and analyzed by motion capture. Transferring a care-receiver or a patient to a portable toilet is a daily task carried out in various assisted-motion environments, such as elderly care facilities, individual homes and hospital wards. One difference is that care workers mainly assist elderly care-receivers, while nurses, especially critical care nurses assist patients who just recovered from critical care, but both care workers and nurses are engaged in this task on the daily basis, we therefore chose this movement for the test situation. Even though they may take different approaches, their main purpose is the same: assist the transfer safely. If we can specify the particular actions that are used to guarantee the patient’s safety, it will help us to connect how to safely assist in any working environment. Moreover, this study is not limited to care-receivers or patients’ safety, it is extended to concerns about the patient’s comfort. By measuring the jerk from the markers set on the SCR or SP’s head, we examined how and when the subjects were burdened, and consider what sort of movements are difficult for the patient. In order to cope with the upcoming super aging society, we hope the study will contribute to develop flexible, tailored made transfer assistance techniques that can be adapted to any working environments.