Abstract
This unsigned questionnaire study was conducted to clarify the presence of lower back pain in nurses associated with nursing tasks in order to devise prevention methods. The subjects were 320 nurses employed at A University Hospital during October of 2012.
There were 32 items in the questionnaire study, including questions on the conditions of the lower back pain, physically painful nursing tasks, and helping patients move to wheelchairs. Categorized by the presence of lower back pain, the Fisher’s exact test was used to compare the results of the questions on helping patients move from beds to wheelchairs, changes in body positions, and the methods employed when moving patients on a bed.
The results showed that 144 subjects （53.4%） replied that they had lower back pain. Compared with the no pain group, many of the subjects in the group with lower back pain felt the nursing tasks were physically painful, and the ratio of subjects who replied that they conducted tasks involving to help patients move by oneself was high, showing significantly high results （P ＝0.012） for tasks helping patients move. Furthermore, the ratio of subjects who replied that they used assistive devices during their tasks was low in both groups. These results suggest the need to avoid conducting patient movement tasks alone as well as the need to employ assistive devices during those tasks as measures to prevent their lower back pain.
