Does the use of friction reducing devices actually reduce the exposure to high force lateral transfers?

The activity of transferring a person from lying to lying frequently occurs in healthcare, e.g. bed to trolley, treatment tables, theatre departments and ambulance services. These positional changes can include lateral transfers (bed to bed), moving up a bed (boosting), or supine to side lying (turning). Transferring patients has long been identified as a contributory cause of MSD in healthcare processes. This study explored routes to error in a UK national healthcare provider for the range of transfers indicated and investigated the level of knowledge within the workforce to complete these transfers. A survey (n=170) showed that a high percentage of staff reported that transfers that using slide sheet devices were being performed in a way which did not following the evidence based guidance. 31.6% of the descriptions of how to set up a transfer were incorrect and a further 13.0% were less than optimal. Only 31/170 respondents showed no errors in their survey responses. A secondary laboratory study quantified the force differences between a best practice transfer and the various erroneous methods. The additional forces were compared to show that there could be more than 100% increase in the amount of effort that healthcare workers have to use of the preparation of the transfer is not performed correctly. Processes and design considerations that enforce the compliance with best practice guidelines can assist in the reduction of the overall musculoskeletal effort that healthcare workers endure.