Ergonomic workplace assessment in a health care context

Nurses, together with other groups in the caring professions, show a high incidence of musculoskeletal injuries as a consequence of the handling of equipment and patients. This is an internationally recognized consequence of the work in these professions, and studies worldwide have investigated these problems. The UK Health and Safety Executive, as well as the European Community (EC) Directives, require workplaces to be assessed for their hazardousness. Ergonomics is the recognized discipline in relation to assessing whether the work, equipment, or environment match the capacities of the people concerned. An assessment procedure is presented, together with proposals for its use, which can form the basis for the ergonomic assessment of workplaces in health care, and give guidance for their improvement.