fereshteh pir hayati

Due to the large numbers of staff employed in health care services, the hospital should be seen as a big industry, with many workers mostly females. This fact along with the lack of sufficient manpower, and also frequent handling and transport of load (patient) in hospitals causes an increase of musculoskeletal disorders among personnel, so that most of the hospital personnel in the first few years, of employment suffer from Musculoskeletal disorders.
The study was designed and implemented in four parts of the Nahavand Alimoradiyan hospital with aim of reducing musculoskeletal disorders resulting from handling and transport of patients. Data was collected using Nordic questionnaire and data analysis was performed by SPSS (ver. 16). The Questionnaires were completed for 46 personnel of the four parts of the hospital who complained a lot about musculoskeletal disorders, before and after the use of ergonomic stretcher designed and also the improvement of several rooms.
The main results of the initial investigations before the intervention, was a high prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders among personnel, especially disorders of lower back, shoulder and ankle, in which low back pain by %69.6 had the highest prevalence among personnel. The results of intervention by an ergonomic stretcher and improvement in layout of the hospital rooms significantly reduced the frequency and intensity of disorders.
This study showed that the use of ergonomic equipment and proper layout of the rooms especially when the hospitals are designed, with proper training can significantly reduce musculoskeletal disorders resulting from patient handling.

One of the major problems in hospitals leading to high prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders among the health staff is associated with patients handling. This study was aimed to reduce musculoskeletal disorders using ergonomic intervention among Nahavand Alimoradian hospital staff. This study was conducted in four wards of 160-bed Nahavand Alimoradian hospital. The data collecting tool was Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire. SPSS software was used for data analysis. The questionnaire was completed، before and after educational intervention، for 46 employees of the four wards which had the most complaints about musculoskeletal disorders. Training classes were held for the target group covering prevention of work-related musculoskeletal disorders، proper techniques for patient handling and stretching exercises for low back pain prevention. The main results tended to be the high prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders especially in low back، shoulders and wrists of the employees. Low back pain was the most prevalent disorder among the personnel. The educational intervention had not significant effect on lessening the musculoskeletal disorders in hospital staff (p > 0. 05). At present، regarding enhancements in healthcare procedures، there is an urgent need to ergonomic intervention in the design of environment، tools and equipment concurrent with educational intervention.