Introduction
Nurses are people who have dedicated themselves in aiding others. However, continuous work makes a huge impact on their physical and psychological health. The long hours, persistent use of heavy lifting, and continuous use of physical motions all affect the nurses’ performance, especially to their patients.
The physical effects of working nurse aides come from various factors such as long hours at work, strenuous lifting and pulling, and psychological imbalance from the environment. In order to improve or relieve some of the physical effects of working nurse aids, there needs to be awareness which will improve the solutions to support and help many nurse aides’ physical effects. Problem Health care includes various medical staff such as the doctor, registered nurses, and nutritionist. However, it is easily forgotten by those who are frequently in contact with patients on a day to day basis.
The Nursing Research and Practice in the United States mentions “nursing is the fifth largest occupation” due to the increasing health concern in our population (Budhrani-Shani, Berry, Arcari, Langevin, & Wayne, 2016 p.1). The work requires consistent physical movements, which contribute to various medical health problems. The continuous long work hours, physical requirements, and psychological pressure from patient and college interaction all contribute to the decline of overall well-being. The patients themselves contribute to the worsening of the nurse aide’s health.
There is an increase in obesity on our island. The weight of the patients impacts the nurse’s work performance. Lifting, pushing, and pulling requires physical work and with heavier patients thus requires additional physical work. The musculoskeletal risk is associated with handling patients in a task like transferring patients from the bed to wheelchair, repositioning patients in the bed, and transferring patients to the toilet from a chair (Choi & Kathryn, 2016). Age correlates to the increasing concern of many nurse assistant’s health.
Based on the data received by The International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 12% of the nurse aides are over 55 years of age. This number plays a large part in the overall health of many of the older nurse aides (Walton & Rogers, 2017), which emphasizes the importance of care to the medical staff. Without proper care to the nurse aides, the effects of the performance towards the patient will not be ideal. Solution Most common musculoskeletal disorder in nurses is chronic low back pain, also known as CLPB (Budhrani-Shani, Berry, Arcari, Langevin, & Wayne, 2016).
The effects of CLPB affects the nurses’ performance in the medical fields by not providing proper care to patients. Some solutions include medication, however that may not be a continuous solution. No medication will benefit anyone when it is overused. A few alternative solutions are yoga and Tai-chi which exercises the musculoskeletal system and aids the chronic pain that many nurses experience. Developments of lifting and transferring equipment are some of the solutions to reduce tension on the low back pain.
The biggest challenges fall under the transporting or even moving an obese individual. Instead of manually lifting obese patients, the use of special equipment and devices are recommended to prevent any further physical damage to the nurse aid. Improved education and no-lift policies are enforced to better inform nurse aides on what not to do when there is a severely obese patient. (Choi & Kathryn, 2016). As the population grows in the United States, obesity has increased and thus causes a growing concern for much medical staff.
Conclusion
The health care will continue to grow as our population will increase, thus requiring the medical staff to be innovative to accommodate specific patients. Nurse aides care for patients on a daily basis and the required tasks and physical strain it has on the body contributes largely to physical pain and physical damage such as musculoskeletal risk and chronic low back pain.
Part of the occupation of a nurse aide is to transport and move patients, however with the growing increase of obsessive patients, the strain and laborious work take a toll on the body of a nurse aides. Some solutions to this problem would be the medication that would decrease the physical pain; others are yoga and tai-chi which exercises the musculoskeletal system and helps with chronic pain.
The innovation of lifting and transfer equipment are encouraged to prevent physical damage or harm to the health care especially to the nurse aides. Improved education and no-lift policies are enforced to reduce the physical damages on the nurse aides. The daily responsibilities of a Nurse Aide are to lift, push, transfer, and adjust patients in various positions. These daily routines eventually cause wear and tear to the body and eventually cause serious and sometimes permanent physical impairment.
