Publication: Evaluation of manual handling of patient beds on the risk of work-related musculoskeletal disorders
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Date
2023-07-27
Authors
Hon, Zhi Jie
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Abstract
Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) consist of low back discomfort, shoulder pain, repetitive strain injuries, and joint pain. Pushing an occupied bed or stretcher is an activity commonly performed by healthcare workers that is believed to contribute to the risk of injury. Hospital beds also must be turned and maneuvered in tight spaces. These tasks may result in greater spinal loads for the nurses and nursing assistants. The primary objectives of this research are to measure the work postures, hand forces, and muscle activation for some torso muscles of the subjects when performing transport activities, predict the lumbar compression and shear loads by using 3DSSPP software and study the effect of height of subjects to their lumbar compression and shear loads. Ten subjects were recruited to push, pull, and turn a hospital bed and a powered stretcher in a controlled lab environment for bed moving. OpenCap open-source software, S-type load cells and sEMG powered by iMotions software were used to measure the work postures, hand forces, and muscle activation for some torso muscles of the subjects respectively. 3DSSPP software was later used to predict the lumbar compression and shear loads. Pushing and pulling force were higher than the turning forces for all the tasks involving hospital bed and powered stretcher. The transversal force (side force) was not significant when pushing and pulling the hospital bed and powered stretcher but significant in turning the hospital bed and powered stretcher to the left and right. The activation level of erector spinae was equally demanded among all the tasks. Results from 3DSSPP showed that all the compression force and shear force exerted to the L5/S1 of the subjects during pushing and pulling the hospital bed and powered stretcher respectively with overweight patient were in the safety limit of 3400 N and 700 N.