Musculoskeletal pain hits 80% of sonographers
Sonographers' association seek answers, solutions
Musculoskeletal pain and injury has become so prevalent among medical sonographers that a large-scale survey found that up to 80% of sonographers work injured or work with discomfort. That percentage got the attention of federal worker safety agencies, a national sonographers association, and equipment manufacturers, who together are trying to make sonography a less painful career choice.
A series of local, national, and international surveys of diagnostic medical sonographers yielded results so consistent — and so unsettling — that "we don't go around trying to prove [the musculoskeletal injury rate] anymore. Now we're trying to address it," says Joan P. Baker, MSR, RDMS, RDCS, FSDMS, founder of the Society for Diagnostic Medical Sonography and an expert on musculoskeletal injuries (MSI) in sonographers.
A national consensus on work-related MSI in sonography in 2003 resulted in the creation of an industry standard addressing the problem.
In late 2006, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) issued a "Workplace Solutions" paper addressing MSI and sonography, an action Baker says is notable.
"The NIOSH publication is important in that as a profession, we believe, there are 100,000 to 125,000 sonographers practicing in the United States, so by size, on a national scale our profession probably wouldn't hit anyone's radar screen. We're not as large a profession as nurses, or teachers," Baker points out. "But we're grateful that NIOSH looked beyond the number in our profession and looked at the percentage within the profession that is injured, and that's when sonography got NIOSH's attention for high incidence of injury." (Click here for NIOSH's guidelines for reducing MSI.)
In pain half their careers
Butler says that the studies conducted prior to the 2003 consensus conference showed that the average respondent to the surveys had been a sonographers for 11 years, and that those who reported having worked with pain or injury (approximately 80%) said they had been suffering the discomfort for about five years.
"So we can say that those who have been suffering discomfort have been in pain for half of their careers," she says.
And while it would have made for a simpler fix if the studies had pinpointed one or two causes for the pain, the data showed "a very multifaceted problem," Butler adds.
NIOSH says sonographers are at risk for developing work-related musculoskeletal disorders such as inflammation of the tendons (tendonitis) or tendon sheaths (tenosynovitis), bursitis, muscle strains, and pathology of the nerves in the upper extremities, neck, and back.
The causes include gripping transducers too firmly (carpal tunnel syndrome); awkward postures and reaching (back and neck pain, bursitis, tenosynovitis, degenerative disc disease); pressure to the elbow from faulty workstation equipment (cubital tunnel syndrome); and other fault workstation equipment or use of equipment (eye strain).
"Once you realize the problem, you have to turn to education," Baker says. "Obviously, [sonographers] know they are having this trouble, but don't know a way out of it, so what we — SDMS and others — have been doing all we can to educate sonographers on risk factors for injury and how to minimize them."
Equipment manufacturers have been involved in efforts to reduce the incidence of MSI since the 2003 consensus conference.
"Redesigning equipment is very expensive, so manufacturers need to know it will impact customers worldwide, so the result of the studies [which included sonographers from around the world] made it possible for them to see the scope of what they are dealing with," she says. Consequently, manufacturers participated in drafting the industry standard.
Finally, SDMS is working with schools to teach new sonographers how to avoid some of the MSIs experienced by those already out of school and working.
"We want to teach them the right way to do it, but that is hard because their teachers don't always work the right way themselves," Butler points out.
For more information
- Consensus Conference on Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders in Sonography. Society of Diagnostic Medical Sonography; May 13-14, 2003. Notes available online at www.sdms.org/msi.
- Joan P. Baker, MSR, RDMS, RDCS, FSDMS, director of marketing and partner, Sound Ergonomics LLC, Kenmore, WA. Phone: (877) 417-8151.
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