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ment isn't readily available? "Having enough is important," says Ms. Moschkau. "Keep devices in each OR." If staff have to go and fetch them, they'll likely go unused.
Awareness is increasing
"Thirty years ago, we didn't wear gloves," says Ms. Harrington. "It took a while to accept that culture." It's time to start shifting opinions on what constitutes safe patient handling.
Only 11 states currently have safe patient handling regulations on the books. Their laws, she says, "are incredibly diverse. No one component [of safe handling programs] is recognized by all the states, and no state's law includes a majority of the components."
The inconsistency justifies the need for national standards and federal regulation, she says. That's why her organization, the American Nurses Association, published "Safe Patient Handling and Mobility: Interprofessional National Standards Across the Care Continuum" (tinyurl.com/mq5tbcf) in June and helped draft the "Nurse and Health Care Worker Protection Act of 2013" (tinyurl.com/l3twelw).
The standards, jointly developed by nurses, physical and occupational therapists, risk managers, ergonomic experts and others who play a role in patient care, set forth a framework for safe handling programs, with the goal of eliminating manual lifting and reducing employee injuries (See "8 Steps to Safety"). The legislation, sponsored by U.S. Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and currently under consideration by House committees, would establish these standards as law, requiring healthcare employers to implement safe handling programs.
"All facilities should have some sort of safe patient handling program," says Ms. Harrington. "Standards can make the excuses why they don't less viable."
E-mail dbernard@outpatientsurgery.net.
