2011 Volume 33 Issue 3 Pages 426-435
In this study I conducted a questionnaire survey to investigate prevalence of lower back pain in nursing care workers, the type of nursing care work they did, and the practices they followed. The subjects were 1,191 nursing care workers from 60 nursing homes. The rate of continuous back pain complaint after the first identification of the condition was high, and more than 55% of the nursing care workers reported working while experiencing the pain. However, 17% of the workers said that they had a history of lower back pain but were not currently suffering from it, and 27% of the workers said that they had never experienced lower back pain at work. Activities that put the greatest physical strain on workers were transferring and moving activities related to bathing the patients and cleaning of their body wastes. Though workers paid attention to the distance between themselves and their patients and the stability of their posture after standing up, the study revealed that most workers perform their duties by using “lifting” action. With an aim to alleviate and prevent lower back pain, they sought detailed information about safe nursing care practices that caused less physical strain. For this objective, I believe that increasing opportunities for workers to exchange information and receive instruction would be effective..
