Fit for duty: Lift team relieves nurses' backs
Hospital emphasizes fitness of lift employees
Patients are getting heavier and sicker, nurses are getting older, and hospitals are facing a nursing shortage. Faced with those realities, Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, OH, sought a way to spare nurses' backs — and to keep them working at the bedside.
Its answer has been to develop lift teams with employees who maintain a high level of physical fitness and take the burden off the nurses. Two teams cover the 800-bed medical center from 6 a.m. to midnight.
In 10,000 patient-handling assists in its first year, there were no injuries of lift team members, says Patricia O'Malley, RN, CCRN, CNS, PhD, nurse researcher with the Center of Nursing Excellence at Miami Valley Hospital, which has magnet hospital status. Meanwhile, lower-back and shoulder injuries of nurses decreased by 70% in that year.
"The lift team has shown and demonstrated remarkable outcomes over the past 34 or 36 months," she says.
They also serve as "ambassadors" to the patients and have been warmly accepted, O'Malley says. "We have patients come in just to visit the lift team to say hello."
The focus on physical fitness is an unusual aspect of the Miami Valley lift team. William Charney, DOH, a noted industrial hygienist who pioneered the lift team concept, emphasizes that lift team members must use equipment to lift without a risk of injury.
Miami Valley has lift equipment and the lift team members must take annual competency exams on its use. But they are not required to use the equipment, says O'Malley. "They use it when they need it."
Lift team members may be men or women, but they all must pass the firefighters' fitness test before they're hired and every year thereafter. They receive special training in lifting and must work in pairs, she says. They also undergo an evaluation by the hospital's medical director of employee health and quarterly observations by an ergonomist.
"It's important for us as an organization to protect them from injury," says O'Malley.
Miami Valley developed the program after nurses in the coronary intensive care unit raised concerns about back strain. They specifically asked about lift teams. Nurses previously had not used the lift equipment provided by the hospital, O'Malley says. "We felt the equipment alone wasn't enough to reduce the stress on our nurses' backs and shoulders," she says.
An interdisciplinary team, which included an ergonomic consultant and the medical director and nurse manager of employee health, developed the lift team concept. It is funded by the Miami Valley Hospital Foundation.
The first pair began on the day shift with six units that had the highest injury rates. The program soon expanded to cover the entire hospital, including the flight pad.
Nurses contact the lift team directly, and stat calls receive immediate attention. "We've never had a complaint from the staff that they took too long," O'Malley says.
Patients are getting heavier and sicker, nurses are getting older, and hospitals are facing a nursing shortage.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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