Nurses sustain manual handling risk assessment behaviours six-months after a training program to move patients safely: a pre-post study

Abstract

Purpose

To determine if a patient manual handling training program focused on dynamic manual handling risk assessment for staff and patient safety, together with the patient’s need for physical rehabilitation, can be transferred and sustained in clinical practice.

Materials and methods

Using a pre-post design, nurses (n = 72) from acute and rehabilitation wards participated in a 4-hour training session teaching dynamic manual handling risk assessment to safely move patients. Clinical observations audits of patient transfers were conducted prior to, and at 1-month and 6-months post training. Surveys determined experiences of training. Nurse musculoskeletal injuries and patient falls were measured 6-months after training.

Results

Program patient handling skills were competently implemented 89% of the time 1-month following training and were sustained 6-months following training. There was no change in falls rates and staff injury rates were very low pre- and post-training. Training was well received and all nurses passed the competency assessment.

Conclusion

The patient handling training program taught nurses to better identify factors associated with risk to themselves and their patients and gave them improved skills to help patients move. Skills were incorporated safely into clinical practice and sustained at 6-months. It is uncertain whether training impacted musculoskeletal injuries.

Implications for rehabilitation

• A dynamic manual handling risk assessment program for safely transferring and moving patients balances staff safety with the patient’s need for physical rehabilitation.

• Nurses can be taught risk assessment skills to better identify factors associated with risk to themselves and their patients that can be translated to clinical practice.

• Thorough risk assessment at the point of the nurse-patient interaction can enable a patient to move at their highest level of function thus providing patients with opportunities to progress their rehabilitation at every interaction.

Keywords:

• Patient handling
• nurses
• risk assessment
• education
• continuing
• safety
• occupational health

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge Mrs Sarah Foster and Ms Sophie Jennings for their contributions to data collection and consumer, Dr. Ed Johansen, for volunteering his time to be appear in the RAISE training videos. The authors also acknowledge Cabrini Health for the in-kind support that was given to this study, particularly the initial input to the study design by Cabrini’s Work Health and Safety staff, ward Nurse Unit Managers, members of the working party and all of the nurses who participated in the program.

Ethical approval

The research was approved by the Cabrini Human Research Ethics Committee (Project: 08-21-08-17).

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Cabrini Foundation Research Grant [grant number 08-21-08-17]. The funding body has no role in the design, analysis or dissemination of the results.