Manual handling: what patient factors do nurses assess?

Area of Science:

• Nursing
• Patient Handling and Mobility
• Occupational Health and Safety

Background:

• The 'safe lifting' philosophy is outdated; manual patient handling by nurses is discouraged.
• Comprehensive moving and handling assessments are crucial, evaluating handlers, patients (loads), tasks, and environments.
• Focusing on patient variables is essential for effective risk assessment in patient mobility.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore and identify patient variables that nurses assess when planning adult patient moving and handling.
• To understand the factors influencing nurses' decisions in patient mobility assessments.

Main Methods:

• Literature review to identify initial patient variables for assessment.
• Development and distribution of a semistructured postal questionnaire to nurses.
• Principal Component Factor analysis applied to questionnaire responses to identify key factors.

Main Results:

• Five primary factors were extrapolated, explaining most of the variability in patient assessment data.
• Thirty-three new patient variables were identified as important for moving/handling risk assessments.
• Significant patient-specific factors influence the planning of safe patient handling procedures.

Conclusions:

• The study highlights critical patient variables beyond basic assessments for safe patient handling.
• Findings have implications for improving nursing education in moving/handling risk assessment.
• Further research is needed to refine and validate these patient variables in clinical practice.