Legislation/risk assessment
Legislation/risk assessment
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No one working in a hospital, nursing home, or in the community should need to lift a patient. Hoists, slings, and other Moving and Handling aids remove the need for manual lifting.
Moving and Handling may continue as long as it does not involve lifting most or all of the client’s weight. The manual lifting of people is eliminated in all but exceptional or life-threatening situations.
People can be encouraged to assist in their own transfers and handling aids must be used if they are not contrary to the person's needs
What is manual handling ?
• The transporting or supporting of loads by lifting, lowering, pulling, pushing and carrying.
• What does that mean for you at work? At home?
• 24 hours approach.
Why manual handling training?
•To enhance your skills and knowledge to safely move and position a person.
• Manage and reduce work- related musculoskeletal disorders
• Ability to identify controversial techniques and their associated risk
• Legal requirement
Work-related musculoskeletal disorder statistics (WRMSDs) in Great Britain 2018/2019
1,354,000 total number of all work-related illnesses
498,000 total number of WRMSDs
37% percentage of WRMSDs
6.9 million days lost due to WRMSDs
2.6 million days lost due to work-related upper limb disorder
2.8 million days lost due to back disorders
1.5 million days lost due to work-related lower limb disorders
The Legislation
Current Legislation
There are 6 separate legislations governing moving and handling under the Workplace Activity Legislation Framework:
Risk Assessment
Manual Handling Operations Regulations, 1992 (as amended)
Risk Assessment aims to eliminate or reduce the risk of manual handling injuries by taking into account a wide range of factors:
Nature of the task
Load
Working environment
Individual capability
Other factors including equipment
Manual Handling Operations Regulations, 1992 (as amended) recommends:
Steps to Risk Assessment
Identify the hazards (anything that can cause harm).
Decide who might be harmed.
Evaluate the risks (likelihood high, medium, low of injury caused by hazard).
Record your significant findings.
Regularly review your assessment.
Evaluate the Risks
Health declarations in place.
Reorganise work activities.
Consideration given to environmental factors.
Offer manual handling training to your staff and assess their levels of competence.
Appropriate handling aids should be made available.
Offer back-care advice to your staff.
Relevant documentation in place – appropriate and current, e.g. care plans, risk assessments, policy & procedures.
Uniform/clothing guidelines in place.
Auditing systems to assess effectiveness .
Record Findings
Risk assessments need to be ‘retrievable’.
Risk assessments need to be made available to those at risk.
Risk assessments need to be user-friendly.
All staff should complete an individual moving and handling patient risk assessment :
On initial assessment
• When anything changes (i.e. after equipment has been put in place or if the patient’s mobility level changes)
When completing a moving & handling risk assessment, the 4 elements of TASK should be considered:
Do you need to do it, what are you going to do, how often? AVOID IF YOU CAN
How many people does it require, capability, experience, the weight of the load, clothing, and footwear?
Able to weight bear, How big, compliant, any pain, tissue viability, communication levels?
Space constraints on posture, floor space available.
What equipment to you have available immediately and/or to be ordered.
Remember there are ONLY 4 situations that the RCN and Resuscitation Council consider life-threatening, and therefore acceptable to lift a child or adult.
1. Building collapse
2. Threat of bombs/bullets
3. Fire
4. Drowning
Note: It is not acceptable to lift someone having a heart attack!
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