Transferring Art Movement Assessment (TAMA) tool for estimating compression force in nurse's low back during patient repositioning

Abstract

  In the past study, Transferring Art Movement Assessment (TAMA) tool was developed to assess nurses' low back loads while repositioning patients. In this study, the tool was developed to estimate the compressive force (Fc) on a nurse's lower back. A total of 15 participants' and 60 repositioning motions were analyzed. The average Fc was 5.9 ± 1.5 kN, and the maximum Fc was 6.3 ± 1.4 kN. The overall score of the TAMA tool was 6.7 ± 1.9 points. There was a significant strong negative correlation between the average Fc, and the overall score (r = -0.70, p < 0.01). The maximum Fc yielded the same trend (r = -0.73, p < 0.01). Given these correlations, the formula to obtain the average Fc was determined to be -0.58 × overall score (points) + 9.82, and -0.59 × overall score (points) + 10.26 for the maximum. The developed TAMA tool makes it possible to assess a nurse's low back load according to NIOSH criteria.