Musculoskeletal Load Assessment in Hospital Nurses with Patient Transfer Activity

Manual patient handling is known to be the major source ofmusculoskeletal load among hospital nurses. The objectives of the present study were determination of frequency ofmusculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and its associatedfactors together with assessment of musculoskeletal loaddue to patient transfer by PTAI method in hospitalnursing staff of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (SUMS), Iran. In this cross-sectional study, 400 randomlyselected nurses of SUMS hospital participated. Data were collected by anonymousdemographic and Nordic Musculoskeletal Disorders Questionnaires together with PTAI index checklist. Statistical analyses wereundertaken using SPSS, version 16. Age and job tenure means of participantswere 30.76±6.44 and 6.92±5.75 years, respectively. 88.2% of the nursing staffreported some forms of musculoskeletal symptoms during the 12 months prior tothe study. The results of PTAI index assessment demonstrated that in 4%, 8.5% and87.5% of the subjects, musculoskeletal load were at levels 1, 2 and 3,respectively. The results revealed that PTAI index score was significantlyassociated with musculoskeletal disorders occurrence (p<0.001).Musculoskeletal load was high among nurses with patient transfer activity. Age, nurse to bed ratio, marital status, shiftwork and PTAI score were associated risk factors for MSDs in the studiednursing staff.