Short-term efficacy of back injury intervention project for patient care providers at one hospital

A one-year Back Injury Prevention Program was initiated at a 440-bed acute care hospital in 1996 in response to concerns over high incidence and sever ity of back injuries among nursing staff and others. The program included a n ergonomic evaluation of patient handling. pilot testing and purchase of n ew equipment, a train-the-trainer program, and training of 374 nurses and o ther patient handling staff (approximately one-half of the nursing staff). An impact evaluation, measured by comparing self-reported knowledge, work p ractices, and back pain among a subset of trainees and controls revealed an increase in knowledge of risk factors, a marginal increase in the use of m echanical devices to transfer patients, and a significant decrease in repos itioning of patients in bed among trained versus control subjects (p = .017 ), Over the course of the program, the number of back injuries was 30% belo w the average of the prior 3 years, with the number of reported injuries in the final quarter (immediately following the training program) approximate ly one-seventh of the three prior quarters. It is concluded that back injur y training may increase knowledge of risk factors and controls and may impa ct behaviors over which individuals have control (e.g,, how often they move patients). However, training effectiveness is limited when engineering con trols such as patient transfer devices are unavailable.