[Improving the quality of work life. Awkward and strained postures among scrub nurses]

Latest statistics show worrying figures about labour accidents and illnesses in surgical nursery, due to the lack of preventing measures or unsuitable working conditions. Actually the duties of a scrub nurse bring an important static physical burden and the fulfilment of reiterative movements, as well as environmental conditions that may raise the provability of the development of skeletal muscular diseases in a medium-long time. In order to monitor the correct accomplishment of preventing rules related to working postures and the handling of heavy loads and identify risk factors that may lead to these disorders and asses symptoms related to inadequate positions and/or heavy efforts, a descriptive quantitative study was carried out over 24 theatre nurses from 2 hospitals in Murcia. According to the gathered information, analysed with the statistic program SPSS, the adopted measures to avoid risks are inadequate and insufficient. The inquired population adopt unsuitable postures in a high proportion moreover, what let us establish a significant correlation with the obtained information referred to the posture adopted. As a result, we cannot any longer state that scrub nurses are undergoing the established preventive rules in order to avoid those symptoms associated to the kind of job they carry out. To sum up we believe as very necessary to improve the scrub nurses' quality of work life, the removal of risk factors and the supply of suitable instrumental, drawing up a protocol of safety and working behaviours as well as offering seminars to teach that protocol.