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Column paper 2017 Fray at al Slide Sheets GBUK.pdf (455.12 kB)

Does the use of friction reducing devices reduce the exposure to high-force horizontal transfers

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posted on 2017-07-24, 09:40 authored by Michael FrayMichael Fray, Daniel David, Diane Hindson, Lynn Pattison, Dave Metcalfe
Transferring a person from lying to lying frequently occurs in healthcare, e.g. bed to trolley, treatment tables, theatre departments and ambulance services. Transferring patients has long been identified as a contributory cause of MSD in healthcare processes. The provision of friction removing material is accepted as a sensible solution to reduce the biomechanical load for horizontal transfers. Little evidence has reported the consequences of not following best practice guidelines when using friction removing devices. This study explored routes to error in an NHS Trust for a range of horizontal transfers and investigated the level of knowledge within the workforce to complete these transfers. A questionnaire survey (n=170) showed that a high percentage of staff reported that horizontal transfers using slide sheet devices were not being performed optimally. A laboratory study quantified the force differences between a best practice transfer and the various erroneous methods. The additional forces showed up to 100% increase in the amount of effort for healthcare workers for each transfer not performed correctly. Based on the reported error an intervention was implemented that simplified the slide sheet protocol across the trust. Only one single slide sheet was provided in all areas to ensure full coverage of the bed and allowed all transfer types with a single tube sheet. Secondary data showed significant improvements in the ability of staff to follow the new protocol and reduce routes to error.

Funding

This study is supported by project LUEL/LDS7841 funded and in collaboration with GBUK Ltd

History

School

  • Design

Published in

The Column

Volume

29.2

Pages

6 - 10 (5)

Citation

FRAY, M. ...et al., 2017. Does the use of friction reducing devices reduce the exposure to high-force horizontal transfers. The Column, 29.2 pp. 6 - 10.

Publisher

© National Back Exchange

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Acceptance date

2017-04-03

Publication date

2017

Notes

This is an Open Access Article. It is published by National Back Exchange under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported Licence (CC BY). Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Language

  • en

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