Back pain in nurses: epidemiology and risk assessment

It is widely recognized that back pain is a serious problem within the nursing profession. This paper commences with a review of epidemiological data concerning the magnitude of this problem: first, with regard to the excess prevalence of back pain in nurses (as compared with the general population); second, with regard to the impact of back pain in terms of sickness absence, and labour turnover; and third, with regard to the association between back pain and patient handling. There follows a formalized assessment of the level of risk inherent in a number of common patient-handling procedures. (This is based upon a new analysis of a number of existing sources of data which have not been gathered together before.) For each procedure, intra-abdominal pressure (IAP) is calculated as a function of patient weight and the level of risk is measured in terms of the probability of a criterion level of 45 mmHg (6.0 kPa) being violated. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for an ergonomic approach to the design of safe systems of work.