The Official Publication of the Alaska Nurses Association Circulation 8,300 to every Registered Nurse, Licensed Practical Nurse and Student Nurse in Alaska
Volume 63 • No. 1
March 2013
Focus on Safe Lifting Protects Nurses, Patients Dianne O’Connell Years of moving, lifting and handling patients of all sizes have left a significant percentage of Alaska’s nurses with chronic back, neck and shoulder problems and other spinal cord injuries, reported and unreported. In an eight-hour shift, the cumulative weight that a nurse lifts averages approximately 1.8 tons per day. Looking at the problem from a different angle, research shows that when a nurse or other healthcare worker lifts something or someone heavier than 35 pounds, that healthcare employee sustains a microscopic tear in his or her discs, inevitably leading to pain. Multiply this by the size of the average patient times hours of lifting and moving these individuals times the number of nurses – and quickly you’ll see the hospital’s budget line items for missed work time, medical leave-use, increased “lightduty” time and workmen’s compensation claims bulge like a ruptured disc. It is estimated that the healthcare industry spends more than $20 billion on costs related to occupational back injuries. Nursing staff, including aides and orderlies, report the most working days off due to work-related back pain – an estimated 750,000 days, according to a November 2012 newsletter published by the Premier Safety Institute. Inadequate solutions for patient lifting and movement can also result in harm to the patient due to falls, one of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) preventable hospitalacquired conditions being monitored for reduced reimbursement, according to Premier. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is an agency within the US Department of Health &
current resident or
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Nurses Go Red
Human Services responsible for administration of several key federal health care programs. In addition to Medicare (the federal health insurance program for seniors) and Medicaid (the federal needs-based program), CMS oversees the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA), among other services. Back in 1994, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) developed a revised NIOSH lifting equation, an ergonomics assessment tool used to calculate the recommended weight limit for two-handed, manual-lifting tasks. In 2007, Thomas R. Waters, Ph.D., a research safety engineer at NIOSH, published an article in the American Journal of Nursing entitled “When is it safe to manually lift a patient?” Waters concluded that when the lifted weight exceeds 35 pounds (the typical size of a small child), assistive devices should be used. The 35-pound limit came from the Veterans Integrated Service Network 8 (VISN 8) Patient Safety Center of Inquiry, first funded in 1999 by the Department of Veterans Affairs in Tampa, Fla. VISN 8 developed algorithms for assessing patient-handling tasks to help healthcare workers differentiate between dependent patients who require nurses to lift more than 35 pounds in helping them and partially weight-bearing patients who will not force the nurse to lift more than 35 pounds. Continuing its pioneering work in the area, the Tampa hospital eventually converted its whole facility into a safe patient handling environment, including installing ceiling lift equipment in
Six nursing groups recently formally affiliated with the Alaska Nurses Association. Of the affiliate groups, some utilize AaNA’s meeting space and telephone conference lines while others share in common lobbying efforts. For 2013, the six affiliate groups are: The Alaska Nurse Practitioner Association, Alaska Association of Nurse Anesthetists, Alaska Affiliate of the American College of NurseMidwives, Alaska Home Care & Hospice Association, Alaska School Nurses Association, and Alaska Clinical Nurse Specialist Association. For close to 20 years, nursing groups in Alaska have come together to lobby for improved healthcare for Alaska’s residents and to promote the practice of nursing in Alaska. Over the years the AaNA and their affiliates have lobbied to prohibit mandatory overtime for nurses, increase
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Six Groups Affiliate continued on page 7
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Alaska Nurses Association Nurses Week Banquet
Permit #14 Princeton, MN 55371
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In Memoriam Arne Beltz MPH, MN, RN
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Six Groups Affiliate with the Alaska Nurses Association
Inside This Issue Note from the President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Professional Practice Corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
A Note from a Fellow Nurse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Congratulations UAA Graduates . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Nurses Honored at Nurse of the Year Awards. . . . 3
White Paper: A Nurse’s Guide to the
Susan Walsh, Ketchikan Super Nurse. . . . . . . . . . 4
Use of Social Media. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Legislative Corner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Governor Parnell Announces Board of
Labor Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Nursing Appointments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Calendar of Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Membership Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
The AaNA Vision Empowering Alaska nurses to be dynamic leaders, powerful in both the health care and political communities.