Manual handling practices and injuries among ICU nurses

This paper describes manual handling practices and injuries among Intensive Care Units (ICU) nurses working in a large tertiary referral medical centre in Australia. The objectives of this study were to identify patterns of manual handling activities; the incidence, types of injury and body site injured; and establish the consequences of injuries. The rate of manual handling injuries among ICU nurses was unacceptably high (52.2%), as was back injury (71.4% of all injuries). In order to reduce manual handling injuries, employers should provide lifting assistance devices; design workplaces so as to minimise the need for ICU nurses to twist, bend and/or lift items from the floor; introduce regular equipment maintenance procedures; provide adequate staffing to assist with lifting patients; and implement processes that facilitate more detailed statistics on manual handling activities and outcomes.