#safe lifting

Safe Lifting Techniques: Lift Smart, Stay Safe

Learn the right lifting techniques to prevent injuries, protect your back, and create a safer workplace. Small steps can make a big difference in workplace safety.

How to avoid manual lifting injuries in the workplace

MANUAL LIFTING

Manual lifting involves transporting/conveying a material from one point to another by hand.

It involves lifting, pushing, pulling, dropping, etc.

Manual lifting is one of the major causes of workplace injuries which includes, musculoskeletal disorders, back pain, pains in joints and muscles, repetitive strain injury, etc.

Due to the harmful effect of poor manual handling…

Melissa Fitzpatrick is a registered nurse in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, who has decades of clinical and executive experience and domain expertise. The first-ever Chief Clinical Officer at Hill-Rom, she is a passionate and dedicated health practitioner and a thought leader in her profession.

She attended Gwynedd-Mercy College in Pennsylvania, where she earned her ADN and BSN, and the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned her MSN. She has been a Registered Nurse since 1977 and has built a national and international reputation as a consultant, speaker, and author. Her peer-reviewed writing has appeared in numerous publications and books.

In an article published in 2014, she described a growing issue in nursing: manual patient mobilization. Patient mobilization – physically moving patients so they are not impacted by prolonged inactivity – is major safety issue for nurses. . “There’s no such thing as ‘safe lifting’ when we use our bodies as the lifting mechanism,” Melissa Fitzpatrick wrote. “Old-school teachings about safe body mechanics have been proven invalid and many of us must unlearn them.” Too often, nurses have hurt themselves during manual patient handling; in some cases, the injuries have been career-ending and the costs associated with workers’ compensation are astronomical. Lawmakers proposed Safe Patient Handling and Mobility laws, supported by the American Nurses Association. “However,” she wrote, “only eleven states have enacted SPHM laws and these laws vary significantly. Much more work needs to be done.”