Every day in this country, 9000 healthcare workers sustain a disabling injury while performing job-related tasks and many of these unfortunate health care workers are registered nurses. Sometime these injuries can be debilitating, career-ending and life altering. They can result to lost work time or sometimes permanent disability. The Bureau of Labor and Statistics in 2006 first started to survey non-fatal injuries in the workplace and revealed that one of the highest rates were among nursing staff. An estimated 12% of nurses leave nursing annually because of back injuries and more than half complain of chronic back pain. As a future nurse, this is startling and makes me apprehensive to work in a hospital environment with patient care, breaking my back was not part of my job description (www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/ osh2_11082012.htm.)
According to the American Nurse Association thirty-five years of research show that training alone is not effective. There is also little evidence that gait belts are effective. It is also a complete myth that just because a nurse is physically fit, they are less
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Three risk factors for sustaining a musculoskeletal injury is repeated lifting, transferring, and repositioning patients. The best way to fix this problem is with four different strategies. The best way to help nurses prevent back injuries is to reeducate nurses on proper body mechanics. Every hospital needs to have a well-trained lifting team to day and night shift nurses. Hospitals need the most modern mechanical lifting equipment to keep up with heavier set patients Also there needs to be new policies and procedures that have clear instructions on a new method of handling patients (Lancman, R., K. L. T. Wright, and R. Gottfried.
This is reviewed with any change in patient status, a fall, and/or quarterly. Patients, depending on screening, might receive services from physical therapy (PT), occupational therapy (OT), nutritional services, bed/chair alarms, floor mats, medication adjustment, and change in room to closer to the nurses’ station, or other services. All at risk patients are easily identifiable by notation on wrist band, footwear, room and equipment signage, in the electronic medical record, and on any paper records. The fall rate of patients at SAVAHCS continues to be at or slightly below the benchmark, but our goal is to have zero falls. The intervention not fully utilized at this hospital, that does show promise in the literature, is the post-fall huddle.
"Civility is an authentic respect for others that requires time, presence, willingness to engage in genuine discourse and intention to seek common ground (Clark, 2010). " Unfortunately I have come to learn that, incivility is a fairly common issue in nursing in regard to nurse-professor, nurse-nurse, nurse-physician, and nurse-resident relationships. I don't believe that it's always meant to be hurtful. Sometimes incivility occurs simply because of the fast-paced environments, long hours and high stressed environment. Regardless, it's inappropriate and unprofessional behavior. "
Fall rates should be assessed prior to implementation, post 1 month and post 6 months of implementation. In addition, a survey provided to nursing staff can assist in the evaluation of increased resources and collaboration with physical therapy increasing their ability to assist with ambulation and exercise. This survey may include questions relating if nurses feel they have increased time to assist patients in education and exercises to decrease fall risk. Conclusion
As stated in “Work-Related Injuries Among CNA”, a study by the U.S. dept. Of labor found that 65.8% of CNA workers have reported having more then one injury in the past year. After completing my research, this article made me realize how bad it is. If you are injured it will impact the ability of the CNA providing care to their patients. When you are injured or over work your body, you are literally losing strength and focus, which will impact the ability of your caring for your patients.
This act created a major revision of standards of care for nursing homes. This legislation also changed the expectations and the quality of care that patients should receive in long term care facilities. This Nursing Home Reform Act passed by congress specifically stated “that each residents have the right to be free from any physical or chemical restraints imposed for purposes of discipline or convenience and not required to treat the resident’s medical symptoms”. While there may be some benefits to using restraints in nursing homes, however, studies have shown that using restraints in nursing homes negatively impacts patients and for the most part does not prevent them from falling or from other incidents that may occur. There are very high levels of risks associated with the use of restraints (Lapane,150).
(Joint Commissions, 2014).It is important for nurses to explain how to use the call light to the elderly patients, and also to ask for help before getting out of bed. Vulnerable patients should be placed close to the nursing station for close monitoring. It is very important to educate health care workers on the approaches used to prevent falls. The measures used to prevent falls in the elderly could include; carrying out a risk assessment during admission, placing colorful stickers outside their doors, stopping the use of psychotropic medications, teaching them the best way to use their assistive device, placing their call light and belonging within their reach, placing their beds in the lowest position with brakes /wheels locked at all times, removing throw rugs from their surroundings, making sure that they are wearing non-skid shoes/socks before ambulating and also giving them their prescribed Vitamin D supplement as well as encouraging them on the use of their corrective glasses or hearing aids. It is very important to educate health care workers on the approaches used to prevent
I remembered being told by my trainer that we should not use an inappropriate equipment that might put the service user at risk (HSE, 2016, p. 13). We were told to call an ambulance and let them do the moving and lifting of Ms. J. Knowing what I know now, I will not be afraid to challenge my supervisor when it comes to the health and safety of the service user. References HSE.Gov. Uk, 2013.
Nurses play an essential role in the healthcare industry. The nurse workforce is made up of licensed nurses: registered nurses (RNs), licensed vocational nurses (LVNs) and licensed practical nurses (LPNs), along with nurse aides. Registered nurses are responsible for assessments of patients’ needs, development of care plans, medication administration, and treatments, while licensed vocational nurses perform specific care under the delegation of the registered nurses and supervisions. Nursing aides perform activities of daily living (unskilled attention) to the patient. Adequate nursing staffing is essential to both patient care and outcomes, also to the retention of nurses while inadequate staffing creates problems for both the patients and
When a paramedic is on and off the clock, taking care of their own body should be a priority. If the caregiver is unwell, the standard of care will be lower and consequently both the paramedic and the patients will have to deal with the repercussions. According to Coffey et al., 2016, the most recent data indicates that the injury rate of a paramedic is more than seven times higher than that of the average working population. Paramedics are at a huge risk for injuries acquired while working since their job is so physical. To help reduce this it is important that paramedics practice proper lifting techniques and maintain physical fitness.
D-The patient arrived on time for her session and informed this writer that she has decided to remain with the clinic as she learned on her own that no detox facility will accept her because she is testing negative and currently on methadone. The patient further mentioned that she is questioning as to whether or not her sister and her mother would help her as they said they would; however, the patient had a moment and looked back when her family did not help her as she struggled with her children. Furthermore, the patient reports, her sister did not give her the $80.00 for her rent. The patient reports that she had asked some guy for assistance. This writer addressed with the patient about her employment status and money management.
According to the data from Health Resources and Services Administration Bureau of Health Professions (2013), there were 2.8 million Registered Nurses (RNs) and 690,000 Licensed Practice Nurses (LPNs) were working in the period from 2008-2010, in the United States. The nursing workforce grew substantially in 2000s, by RNs growing by more than 24.1 percent and LPNs by more than 15.5 percent. The population of nurses are facing multiple challenges at the workplace, such as shortage in staffing, nurse turnover, increased workload, long working hours, poor relationship with co-workers, lack of support from the management, and eventually these challenges create high level of nurse burnout. It is estimated that job- related burnout measure using the Maslach Burnout inventory – Human Services Survey, 36.5 % of nurses having high level of burnout. The researchers at the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research at the University Of Pennsylvania School Of Nursing, estimates if nurse burnout reduces by 10 %, could prevent thousands of hospital acquired infections and reduce the health care expense (Potera, 2012).
CHAPTER 2 : REVIEW OF LITERATURE 2.1 REVIEW OF RELEVANT STUDIES The emerging themes noted throughout the research were safety of mobilization of critically ill patients, the effect of bed rest and various methods of repositioning on LOS and the effectiveness of a nurse-driven mobility protocol. Nursing staff or physical therapists can provide early mobilization in the ICU; however physical therapists are not always available in ICU. Any measure of mobility milestones in the ICU must be feasible, valid and reliable across both nursing and physical therapy disciplines. A previous survey suggested that few physical therapists use any specific instrument to evaluate mobility in ICU (Skinner, Berney, Warrillow, & Denehy, 2008).
When considering and discussing vulnerability, it is important to immediately acknowledge that any person entering a healthcare setting for treatment and care puts themselves in a vulnerable position. However, the perception of vulnerability greatly differs from person to person dependant on experience and individual factors (Phillips, 1992). As such there is a continuum of vulnerability that encompasses a myriad of factors such as potential, circumstance, permanence and inevitability (Copp, 1986) As a nurse, it is vital that we consider, understand and assess all factors relating to the patient with regards treatment and advocacy in relation to their care plans and beyond. Vulnerability refers to the difficulty or inability of an individual to cope with external risks and shocks to their person or their circumstances. Combined with internal factors, such as a feeling of helplessness, a patient will be unable to cope without damaging loss; where loss is defined as someone who becomes physically, mentally or emotionally weaker as a result of these internal and external factors (Chambers, 1989).
Negligence: Negligence is conduct that falls below the standards of behaviour established by law for the protection of others against unreasonable risk of harm. (Gayle, 2015) The core idea of negligence is that people should exercise reasonable care when they act by taking account of the potential harm that they might forcible cause harm to other people. (Fein man, M. 2011) Negligence can be defined as a failure to take reasonable care or steps to prevent loss or injury to another person.
Research shows that among the injuries that happened in fitness facilities, 36.2% were due to overexertion or strenuous and unnatural movement, 16.3% of cases were due to dropped weights, and 12% were caused by tripping or falling during group exercises and twisting or