According to statistics provided by the U.S. Department of Labor, in 2004, nursing aides, orderlies and health attendants were ranked as the No. 2 occupation most afflicted with musculoskeletal disorders. That doesn’t take into account the many other employees working in the health field, which also were ranked by category, and when added together, placed health-care workers firmly in the No. 1 position with 52,000 musculoskeletal disorders formed while on the job, in 2004 alone.

Local nurse Anne Hudson wrote the book on the issue. “Back Injury Among Healthcare Workers: Causes, Solutions, and Impacts,” (2003) was co-edited by Hudson and William Charney, and addresses the current culture of accepting injuries to nurses and other workers rather than providing patient handling equipment to prevent injuries to employees.

According to the Oregon Coalition for HealthCare Ergonomics, in an eight-hour shift a nurse will lift as much as 1.8 tons per shift.

Weight lifted, ergonomically and otherwise, is loaded onto the vertebrae and lumbar discs in the lower back, which can begin to develop microfractures over time as a caregiver repeatedly lifts patients.

The microfractures will not cause pain but eventually the situation will worsen to the point where the spine is in constant pain — but by then it’s too late, Hudson said. 

At that point, the microfractures have spread and damaged the disc and could have caused degenerative disc disease and other painful conditions.

While Oregon lawmakers have chosen to try to alleviate the trend of health-care workers injured on the job through education and information sharing, other states have passed laws requiring all hospitals and care facilities to use lift equipment.

Legislation is essential to underscore the absolute necessity of modernizing patient handling methods in America, Hudson said.

“It is barbaric to allow nursing staff and patients to suffer painful, devastating injuries which could be prevented with modern equipment,” she added.

For more information on patient handling, the Work Injured Nurses Group or legislation currently under consideration in the U.S. Senate, those interested can visit http://ajcc.aacnjournals.org/cgi/content/full/12/5/400, http://www.wingusa.org, http://www.ergoweb.com or e-mail anne@wingusa.org.