Pediatric Safe Patient Handling

Patient-handling tasks have historically been recognized as the primary cause for musculoskeletal disorders among the nursing workforce. Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota (Children's) implemented an innovative and industry-leading pediatric safe patient-handling program to minimize the frequency of occupational injuries associated with patient-handling tasks. An analysis of workers' compensation claims revealed that the rate of postimplementation incidents was reduced by 71.4% when compared with Children's preimplementation incidence rate. A review of risk perception surveys illustrated that most patient-handling tasks at Children's were perceived to be significantly less risky after implementation.

Key words: Safe patient handling, Pediatric lifting, Patient transfer, Patient lifting, Nursing safety, Lift equipment, Employee safety, Culture of safety