Workload Analysis and Ergonomic Design of Nursing Tasks when Caring for Chronically Sick Patients

Nurses in the hospital and home are usually exposed to high psycho-physical stress. In this review, we address lumbar spine hazards that result from the use of forced posture, lifting and carrying, or the use of force to transfer patients. Our remarks refer to transfer procedures to patients in persistent vegetative state , to patients with paraplegia and to patients after transplantation. It is therefore in all cases to care for the most vulnerable. Based on video studies, body posture analyzes and biomechanical calculations, transfers to two hospital wards with a total of 71 patients were examined. More than half of the nurses make four transfers per shift or more. The transfers are made alone or in pairs. Partly they work according to kinesthetic principles. Aids, such as lifters, sliding mats, roll boards, etc. are only used occasionally. The compression forces at L4 / L5 calculated using the 3DSSPP University of Michigan software ranged from 2810 N to 6279 N, well above the recommended limits (not only) for women. Multi-moment posture analyzes in a 509 case study focused on standing-stooped and standing-strongly stooped postures, which in many cases were coupled with lateral upper body tilt, upper body torsion, and work in the arm's reach margins.