An ergonomic design of a post-natal patient transferring device for female nursing personnel at PCGH

Executive Summary. Work-related back pain is a common problem within the nursing profession. This study aims to contribute to the realization of the efforts to reduce work-related discomforts, particularly those which resulted from manual patient lifting. This study commences with a review of present lifting procedure performed by OB-Gyne nurses of Pasay City General Hospital (PCGH). Several ergonomic assessment tools were presented and applied in the investigation of musculosketal discomforts among the nurses. Results were then compared with the standard values set by foreign researchers. The study has a primary objective of improving the process of manual patient lifting performed by the nursing personnel of PCGH. This was addressed by the development of a low-cost patient transferring device that significantly improved the current patient lifting process. The same ergonomic assessment tools were again employed in the validation of the proposed transferring device. From the Nordic Survey Analysis, it was determined that the reported cases of lower back discomfort was reduced from a value of 88,896 to 11.11%. This resulted to a percentage decrease of about 77.78%. For the severity level, moderate discomfort was reduced to minimal discomfort in the lower back. Furthermore, for the frequency level, discomfort was only felt a few times a month as opposed to discomfort that never goes away in the present system. From the biomechanical analysis, the compressive forces acting on the L5/SI of the nurses were within the NIOSH maximum acceptable limit of 6400N. The implementation of the proposed C-type stretcher in the patient transferring task significantly reduced the load experienced by the nurses. The compressive force acting on the L5/S1 of nurse 1 and nurse 2 in the proposed system were reduced by as much as 1962.00 N and 2838.99N respectively. From the analysis of body posture (OWAS method), the proposed patient transferring method was proven to improve the working posture of the nurses while performing patient transfer operations. This resulting to low posture codes of 1-1-2 and 2-1-2 for nurse 1 and 2 respectively. The study concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings and a justification of the importance of ergonomics especially in the Philippine Medical Industry. Recommendations for future studies were also presented for those interested to pursue a study of similar objectives