Encouraging Caregiver Participation in Your Injury Prevention Program

In order to achieve universal participation for your safe lifting and injury prevention program, plan on constantly reminding caregivers to practice safe lifting within the confines of your program’s boundaries.  Why establish boundaries? We are members of a society conditioned since childhood to obey signs and icons such as One Way street signs, Stop signs, No Smoking signs, and Do Not Enter signs.  Each of these signs defines “zones” or boundaries within which a particular activity is tightly regulated.  Most people follow the rules within the boundaries defined by these types of signs.  

In healthcare, it’s important to establish facility-wide boundaries or perimeters within which safe lifting practices must be employed at all times.  That’s essentially the logic behind the Safe Lifting Environment campaign.  This universally recognized symbol can be used by virtually any healthcare facility to “post” or define perimeters within which safe lifting practices must be employed at all times.    While signage alone will not ensure injury prevention, these constant reminders – based on societal conditioning – are turning out to be a key element in the battle to increase participation and eliminate injuries incurred when caregivers lift and reposition patients. Without defining a perimeter or establishing a conformance zone, individual caregivers are more or less on their own to participate or not, whenever and wherever they see fit.

Injury Prevention Programs

The healthcare industry is one of the most dangerous occupational workplaces for risk of back injuries to caregivers.  Accidents caused by lifting – resulting in serious injuries to medical personnel – are a major reason for the industry’s constantly escalating insurance rates, workers’ compensation costs, and staff problems. 

For additional information:  Click here for an article discussing injury prevention and the other benefits of safe lifting.

Using Safe Lifting Environment

Creating Buy-in with Supporting Documents

• Policy Statement
• Patient Information
• Checklist: How to determine if your facility qualifies as a “Safe Lifting Environment”
• Helpful Hints – How to Use the Symbol
• Merchandise: See “Helpful Hint” document for ideas on creating buy-in using merchandise
• Injury Statistics

Creating Buy-in with Graphics

Visit the Safe Lifting Environment Section for these items

• “Flash” animation on your Web Site Home Page
• “Static” graphic symbol for your Web Site Home Page
• Drag and Drop symbol for electronic charting (Patient Lift Specific)

.Creating Buy-in with Merchandise

• Facility Wide
  • General Decals at Main and Unit entrances
  • Lapel Buttons
  • Place patch on scrubs

 

• Patient Specific
  • Use symbol on white boards or paper charting
  • Magnets to indicate type of lift required

   

• Click here to use merchandise to maximize patient safety and injury prevention program effectiveness.

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