SAFE PATIENT HANDLING AND MOVEMENT Ergonomic Tool #6. Lifting and Carrying Supplies and Equipment in the Perioperative Setting
carrying of objects is physically demanding and may place the team member at substantial risk for low back pain and back and shoulder inju- ries6,64,150,189-192,237,270,271
Factors contributing to the risk
for injury include the weight of the object lifted, excessive reach, location of the lifted object relative to the person lifting the object (ie, proximity of the object being lifted to the person’s body), and the duration and frequency of lifting.270
AORN Ergo-
nomic Tool #6 is intended to assist team members in evaluating lifting and carrying tasks and taking measures to protect themselves from injury.64 The 2005 AORN Workplace Safety Task Force
identified a series of typical OR lifting tasks and eval- uated them using the Revised NIOSH Lifting Equa- tion (RNLE). The RNLE is a tool for assessing manual lifting of objects that allows the user to calculate the recommended weight limit (RWL) for a specified two-handed manual lifting task. The RWL is defined for a specific set of task conditions and represents the weight of the load that nearly all healthy work- ers could continuously lift over a period of time (ie, 1 hour up to 8 hours) with recovery time and not increase their risk of developing lifting-related low back pain. By “healthy workers,” NIOSH means work- ers who are free of adverse health conditions that would increase their risk of musculoskeletal injury.64 In addition, the lifting index (LI) for the task can be
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calculated by dividing the actual weight of the load lifted by the RWL.64
of the level of physical stress associated with a partic- ular manual lifting task RWL.64
The LI provides a relative estimate The list in the tool is
not all inclusive; the NIOSH equation can be used to calculate an LI value for other two-handed manual lifting tasks not on the list (Table 1).64,199 The concept behind the RNLE is to start with a recommended weight that is considered safe for an “ideal” lift (ie, load constant equal to 51 lb [23 kg]) and then reduce the weight as the task becomes more stressful (ie, as the task-related factors become less favorable). The fixed load constant of 51 lb (23 kg) is reduced by factors related to task geometry (ie, location of the load relative to the worker at the initial liftoff and set down points), task frequency and duration, and type of handhold on the object. The precise formulation of the revised lifting equation for calculating the RWL is based on a multiplicative model that provides a weighting (ie, multiplier) for each of six task vari- ables. The following list briefly describes the mea- surements required to use the RNLE: • H: horizontal distance of the load from the worker = horizontal location of hands from mid- point between the inner ankle bones. This is measured in centimeters or inches at the origin and the destination of the lift.
