Reducing patient handling injuries through contextual training

In the United States there is no standardized method for training emergency nurses in manual patient handling, despite the high incidence of injury. The objective of this research was to evaluate several training protocols, including the use of simulated emergency situations and the use of realistic context during course delivery, to evaluate their impact on nurses' postures and compliance with trained procedures during post-training tests.

Sixteen nurses were trained in 1 of 4 training protocols. Pre-training and post-training patient handling tasks were observed. Nurses' torso postures were evaluated using a modified Standard Posture Classification System, and their compliance with a set of trained safe practices was monitored.

All forms of training significantly improved the nurse's torso flexion and rotation and compliance with safe patient handling practices. Contextual training led to the greatest improvements on all measures.

The results show that hospitals can reduce the risk of back injury among emergency nurses due to patient handling through specific training in patient handling. The use of contextual training formats reduces injury risk significantly more than does classroom training.