V E TE R AN S AFFAI R S & M I LITARY M E D I CI N E O UTLO O K
KEEPING PERSONNEL AND PATIENTS SAFE The VA’s Safe Patient Handling and Mobility program protects nurses and patients. By Gail Gourley
n AS THE OPENING MONTHS OF 2020 reveal the increasingly devastating developments of the COVID-19 pandemic, images of health care workers caring for skyrocketing numbers of patients are prevalent. A shortage of personal protective equipment is just one example highlighting their safety requirements, and those of their patients. Underlying the crisis and inherent in all patient care, both as part of the pandemic as well as other ongoing health care functions, is the always-present need to transport, move, and reposition patients with limited mobility. The overexertion and bodily reaction from motions like lifting, bending, twisting, and reaching place nurses and other health care workers at high risk for injury, underscoring additional safety concerns. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has placed emphasis on protecting nurses and patients with its Safe Patient Handling and Mobility (SPHM) program. Jill Earwood, MSN-HCQ, CSPHP, RN, VHA Office of Nursing Service liaison for SPHM and Asheville VA SPHM coordinator, explained the significance of injuries to nurses. Referring to a November 2018 article in the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics journal Monthly Labor Review, Earwood said, “Previous research on hospitals
12
demonstrated that hospital workers have a higher-than-average incidence rate of injury and illness. And historically, RNs have experienced some of the highest injury and illness rates in health care and the social assistance sector.” In anecdotal terms, Earwood noted that nursing colleagues observe, “We’re the only profession that looks at a hundred pounds as ‘light weight.’ And it’s because we’ve been expected to manually handle that amount of ‘light weight,’ more than a hundred pounds, repeatedly, every day that we work.” She continued, “The VA committed to stopping this culture of thinking that we had to lift, and do things differently than a factory worker or construction worker; that we should have equipment to do the work that we’re doing.” Another issue is that the percentage of bariatric patients continues to increase. “They have more co-morbidities than the average person in the hospital, so they’re even more dependent on us,” Earwood said. “They need us for the activities of daily living.” An additional factor highlighting the necessity to keep nurses safe, Earwood added, is that “the American Association of Colleges of Nursing says that the U.S. is projected to have a shortage of nurses that’s intensifying
as baby boomers age and the need for health care grows. So, all of these things make patient handling a significant issue for nurses.” Tony Hilton, DrPH, MSN, FNP, CRRN, Veterans Health Administration SPHM national program manager, explained the importance to staff and patients of utilizing technology for patient mobility, stating that all the evidence shows the benefits of “mobilizing patients very early in admission, starting in the ICU.” She continued, “It’s so clear in the literature and in practice that it’s important to get our patients moving very quickly and very early. The problem is that we’ve manually done it for years and years, and we have been taught to do this using our physical bodies. That has been proven through a lot of literature that the human body is not built to withstand these kinds of tasks that result not only in acute incidents of injury, but chronic injuries. … So we really started looking at it in the VA from a protecting staff perspective. But then we realized all of the benefits to the patients. So, in terms of utilizing the technology, it’s a win-win for our patients and our staff.” Hilton pointed to VA research in reducing nurses’ injuries, beginning in the 1990s with pilot projects and demonstration sites. “Over time, this initial research group and those pilot facilities started to do work with our regulators and Congress to ask for funding,” she said. “In 2008, we were provided over $200 million in capital funds for overhead ceiling lifts and technology,” showing that “the VA has a serious commitment to really making sure we protect our staff and our patients.” That initial funding began the VA’s national SPHM program, utilizing proven methods and the latest technology and devices to maximize the safety of patients and staff when moving or lifting patients. As one example, ceiling lift devices utilize a sling to transfer a person from point to point along an overhead track. “The VA invested a lot of money into ceiling lifts and other technology that
www.defensemedianetwork.com
