ANA: Most nurses work with MSD pain
Workplace safety, reporting improves
Despite the progress toward safe patient handling, about eight in 10 nurses still suffer from frequent musculoskeletal pain and six in 10 worry about having a disabling musculoskeletal injury, according to a 2011 online survey by the American Nurses Association in Silver Spring, MD.
"It's a wakeup call to see how concerned nurses are about developing a musculoskeletal disorder (MSD)," says Jaime Murphy Dawson, MPH, senior policy analyst at ANA's Center for Occupational and Environmental Health. "It's something that could end their careers."
Hospitals offer a safer workplace than a decade ago, with needle safety devices, powder-free gloves and other safety devices. Far fewer nurses worry about acquiring HIV or hepatitis from a needlestick or latex allergy compared to results of a similar survey a decade ago. Of the 4,614 nurses responding to the survey, almost two-thirds (62%) work in hospitals.
But even though two-thirds of nurses said they had access to patient handling devices, only one-third reported using them frequently. That finding points to a need for hospitals to make the devices more accessible and to provide more training in their use, Dawson says. Older nurses (ages 40 to 59) were more likely to report using the devices frequently.
The survey reflects a change in the makeup of the nursing workforce. Nurses have aged 62% of the respondents are 50 or older. They are less likely to work overtime but more likely to work shifts of 10 hours or more, compared with respondents in 2001.
Yet their top health concern has remained the same: the impact of stress and overwork. "It's a culmination of the climate that nurses are working in today," says Dawson. ANA has launched a Healthy Nurse program to encourage stress management and healthy lifestyles, and the organization advocates for adequate staffing, she says.
Despite improvements in workplace safety, nurses are still sustaining about as many injuries as they reported a decade ago 42% of nurses reported having been injured at least once in the past year compared to 40% in 2001. But nurses are much more likely to report injuries, with 81% saying they reported at least one injury. Only 24% of nurses surveyed in 2001 said they had reported an injury they sustained.
Despite the progress toward safe patient handling, about eight in 10 nurses still suffer from frequent musculoskeletal pain and six in 10 worry about having a disabling musculoskeletal injury, according to a 2011 online survey by the American Nurses Association in Silver Spring, MD.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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