Nurses and other healthcare workers face a significant risk of serious back and spinal cord injuries. Some of these injuries are relatively minor and may just result in a few days out of work. But other injuries can be so severe that medical attention is needed, or a nurse could be injured so badly that they cannot return to their chosen profession.
Many times, these back injuries happen because the nurses are trying to lift or move patients. There’s been an obesity epidemic happening for decades in the United States. Right now, almost 40% of adults are obese. There has also been a significant rise in extremely obese men and women; for instance, more than 10% of women now fit into this category, compared to just around 3% in the 1980s.
How do these injuries happen?
These injuries happen in many different ways, and examples may include:
- A nurse who has to lift a patient back onto a hospital bed
- A nursing home worker who needs to help a patient turn to avoid bedsores
- A paramedic or an EMT who has to lift a patient onto a stretcher or into an ambulance
- An emergency worker who transports a patient into a helicopter to be airlifted to a different medical center
There are some solutions to deal with these risks, such as having teams of healthcare workers perform problematic lifts together or using mechanical lifts and aids to take the strain off of the healthcare workers. But these solutions certainly aren’t possible in all situations, and many workers suffer severe injuries every week.
Have you been hurt on the job, perhaps suffering a serious back injury? You need to know about all of your rights to workers’ comp benefits.