Pediatric safe patient handling

Kristi Haglund1, Jennifer Kyle, Marsha Finkelstein

  • 1Safety and Security Department, Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA. kristi.haglund@childrensmn.org <kristi.haglund@childrensmn.org>

Patient-handling tasks have historically been recognized as the primary cause for musculoskeletal disorders among the nursing workforce. Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota (Children's) implemented an innovative and industry-leading pediatric safe patient-handling program to minimize the frequency of occupational injuries associated with patient-handling tasks. An analysis of workers' compensation claims revealed that the rate of postimplementation incidents was reduced by 71.4% when compared with Children's preimplementation incidence rate. A review of risk perception surveys illustrated that most patient-handling tasks at Children's were perceived to be significantly less risky after implementation.

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