“No Safe Way” to Manually Lift Patients

"The bottom line is, there's no safe way to lift a patient manually," says one expert interviewed by NPR for a piece on patient handling. "The magnitude of these forces that are on your spine are so large that the best body mechanics in the world are not going to keep you from getting a back problem." The report cites surveys from the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics that identified more than 35,000 injuries among nursing care staff each year. Likewise, four of the most likely eight professions to experience an occupational musculoskeletal injury are orderlies, nursing assistants, personal care aides, and registered nurses.