A Brief Pre-Intervention Analysis and Demonstration of the Effects of a Behavioral Safety Package on Postural Behaviors of Pharmacy Employees

Abstract

This study employed a pre-intervention analysis to determine factors that contributed to safe ergonomic postures in a small pharmacy. The pharmacy was located on a university campus and employed both pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. Three of the eight pharmacy employees had experienced various repetitive motion injuries that resulted in a total of 36 lost days and 161 restricted days in the year prior to treatment onset. Observers collected detailed naturalistic data on the pharmacy employees' ergonomic behaviors when participants were on and off the phone. Results indicated that the participants' ergonomic postures were more at risk when the participants were using the phone. The preintervention analysis proved valuable for identifying variables responsible for the participants' at-risk behavior and aiding in the development of an intervention.

Key Words:

• Organizational behavior management
• behavioral safety
• medical setting
• pharmacy
• functional assessment
• pre-intervention analysis