Musculoskeletal Disorders Related to Patient Transfer in Hospital Nursing Personnel

The nursing profession, due to the nature of its tasks, is a high risk occupation for work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs). The objective of this study was the determination of the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders and their associated risk factors among nursing personnel with patient transfer tasks.

This cross-sectional study was conducted on 400 nurses from 75 wards of 11 hospitals affiliated to Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (SUMS) during summer 2011. Data were collected by the Nordic Musculoskeletal Disorders Questionnaire (NMQ). Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS version 16. Prevalence rates and 95% confidence intervals were calculated. To determine MSDs associated factors, the level of significance was set at < 5%.

The mean of age and job experience in subjects were 30.76 ± 6.44 and 6.92 ± 5.75, respectively. Some form of musculoskeletal symptoms had been experienced during the last 12 months by 88.2% (CI95%: 85.2-91.2) of the nursing personnel. Lower back (71.5%), feet (68.2%), hand and wrist (64.5%), neck (42.2%) and shoulder (42%) symptoms were the most prevalent problems among the nurses. Logistic regression analyses indicated that factors including job experience, nurse to bed ratio, gender and shift work had a significant correlation with musculoskeletal disorders (P < 0.05).

It can be concluded that the prevalence rates of WMSDs related to patient transfer in hospital nursing personnel were high. Therefore, it is necessary to eliminate or correct factors associated with WMSDs occurrence, improve patient transfer techniques and use patient transfer aids.