Impact of two ergonomics training on prevalence of upper and lower extremity complaints among nurses

Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) were known as one of the main occupational problems among health-care workers. However, we had some limitations and difficulties for transferring ergonomic concepts to the health-care workers, especially nurses due to heavy work task and insufficient time for that. This study compares the impacts of two ergonomic training methods (lecture and pamphlet) in nurses of an Iranian tertiary hospital on prevalence of their upper and lower extremity complaints.

In the present randomized clinical trial with parallel groups, 1140 nurses were randomly selected and allocated to the control and two interventional groups. In the interventional groups, nurses revived a training program and pamphlet as ergonomic training methods about work-related MSDs and related ergonomic concept to MSDs prevention and nurses in the control group, did not receive any ergonomic training methods. Upper and lower extremity complaints measure among study nurses with Nordic MSDs before 6 months and 1 year after trial intervention. Statistical analysis including the Kolmogorov-Smirnov goodness-of-fit, Chi-square test, and independent sample t-test was performed using SPSS version 22. A two-tailed P ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

At the first and second parts of the study follow-up, the prevalence of upper and lower extremities significantly improved in the interventional groups in comparison with the control group. Moreover, between the two trial groups, the frequency of MSDs in upper and lower extremities significantly improved among nurses of the pamphlet group in comparison with the lecture group.

Findings of the study showed that we can use pamphlet as a suitable tool for describing ergonomic concepts in comparison with lecture among nurses.