SAFE PATIENT HANDLING AND MOVEMENT Ergonomic Tool #3. Lifting and Holding the Patient's Legs, Arms, and Head While Prepping
When performing preoperative patient skin anti-
sepsis on the patient’s legs, arms, and head, the body part may be raised to apply the skin antiseptic circumferentially.82
Factors that contribute to the
ability of the perioperative team member to safely perform the patient skin antisepsis and hold the limb are the size of the body part, length of holding time, posture required to hold the body part with- out contaminating the surgical prep, and the physi- cal ability of the team member holding the body part. Lifting and holding limbs during skin antisep-
sis may be hazardous to perioperative team mem- bers because lifting and holding limbs requires arm extension that exerts strong forces on the muscles of the shoulders, arms, and back. The risk of injury is low if the muscle exertion is low and the holding time is only a few seconds. The risk of injury increases when muscle exertion exceeds acceptable levels.214,222 Ergonomic Tool #3 shows the calculations for average weight for an adult patient’s leg, arm, and head as a function of whole body mass. Patient weight is divided into 10 categories, ranging from
