This interactive course on Patient Handling Safety discusses the hazards that can be associated with patient handling tasks, and what healthcare workers can do to prevent accidents and injuries from occurring while they perform them. Caring for patients in a healthcare environment can require nurses, aides, orderlies and other caregivers to lift as much as four thousand pounds during a typical shift. No wonder they’re twice as likely to suffer musculoskeletal injuries on the job as employees in other industries. But these injuries don’t have to occur. Areas covered in the course include information on patient handling and caregiver injuries, algorithms, patient assessment and body mechanics, repositioning a patient in bed, performing patient transfer tasks safely, mechanical lift devices and more.

After completing the course, employees should be able to:

• Explain physical hazards that can be associated with patient handling procedures.
• Describe the equipment and work practices that caregivers should use to carry out these tasks.
• Understand what healthcare organizations can do to help protect employees from injuries related to patient handling.

• Introduction
• Patient Handling and Caregiver Injuries
• Algorithms, Patient Assessment and Body Mechanics
• Repositioning a Patient in Bed
• “Lateral Transfer” from Bed to Stretcher
• “Stand-and-Pivot” from Bed to Chair
• Mechanical Lift Devices
• Conclusion

Approximately 30 minutes

Testing conducted throughout this online course is designed to reinforce the information presented. A mark of 80% must be achieved in order to receive a certificate of completion. Participants are able to repeat the course twice if the pass mark is not achieved.

Upon successful completion of this online course, a certificate of completion will be available for download and printing.