Reducing the incidence of back pain: student nurses' recommendations

National Back Care week (3-9 October 2009) embraced the promotion of back care. However, over a decade has pasted since the RCN Safer Patient Handling campaign (1996), and reports continue to highlight the high incidence of back pain within the nursing profession. This article reveals student nurses' experiences of back pain and their recommendations to reduce the incidence of back pain in the workplace. Statistics by the Department of Health (2002) report 24% of NHS staff experience back pain, reflecting the high prevalence of this study, where 34% of student nurses experience back pain during their clinical placement. The student nurses' recommendations clearly underpin the evidence-based research previously published, and as our future workforce the student nurses' voices need to be heard.