Ergonomic Evaluation of Slide Boards Used by Home Care Aides to Assist Client Transfers

Details

• Personal Author:
  Buchholz B ; Galligan C ; Gore R ; Punnett, Laura ; Quinn M ; Sun C
• Description:
  Home care aides risk musculoskeletal injury because they lift and move clients; the body weight of most adults exceeds the NIOSH recommended limit for lifting. Methods to reduce manual patient lifting in institutional settings are often technically or economically infeasible in home care. Our goal was to identify suitable, safe, low-technology transfer devices for home care use. Sixteen experienced home care aides performed client transfers from wheelchair to bed (upward) and bed to wheelchair (downward) in a simulated home care environment (laboratory), using four different slide boards and by hand without a device. Aides' hand forces were measured during client transfers; aides also evaluated usability of each board. Hand forces exerted while using slide boards were mostly lower than in manual transfer, and forces were lower in downward versus upward transfers. Aides judged a board with a sliding mechanism easier to use than boards without a sliding mechanism. Practitioner Summary: This paper provides quantitative biomechanical measurements showing that slide boards reduced the hand forces needed by home care aides to transfer clients from bed to wheel chair and vice versa, compared to manual lifting. Using a semi-quantitative usability survey, aides identified boards with a sliding mechanism easiest to use. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Biomechanical Phenomena Ergonomics Health Personnel Home Care Services Musculoskeletal Diseases Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Patient Lifting Biomechanics Equipment Design Health Care Workers Home Care Home Health Care Manual Lifting MSD Musculoskeletal Disorders Occupational Health And Safety Patient Handling Patient Transfer Devices

  More +
• ISSN:
  0014-0139
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Massachusetts ; OSHA Region 1
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  61
• Issue:
  7
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20050790
• Citation:
  Ergonomics 2018 Jul; 61(7):913-922
• Contact Point Address:
  Bryan Buchholz, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA USA
• Email:
  Bryan_Buchholz@uml.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2018
• NORA Priority Area:
  Healthcare and Social Assistance
• Performing Organization:
  Harvard School of Public Health
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Ergonomics
• End Date:
  20280630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:6be0f940957394fcc26eba59f911622a6452cd86e7a4311c72248503f64d742c3520c6384b1fed6994a1c354856b4a2014778a5d5da835aa3bfc8ebf258ba506
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/211004/cdc_211004_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.39 MB ]