Moving & handling workshop in Romania
On April 7, LINET product training specialist Tereza Halfarová and Alexander Sirin, medical supervisor and rescuer, organized a moving and handling workshop in Bucharest, Romania. The event was held at the LifeSIM Medical Simulation Center, one of the best private centers of its kind in the CEE region.
Thirty ICU nurses attended the workshop and were divided into two groups and then two subgroups, each of which was led by an instructor. Initially, the nurses were skeptical as to whether they would learn anything new, but they soon realized that the instructors were showing them how to handle patients on a daily basis with greater ease, greater comfort, and greater safety for patients and nurses alike.
The level of interest among the nurses increased quickly when the instructors began demonstrating the first technique, which involves more efficient use of the legs and thus helps prevent back pain and injuries. As the day progressed, the nurses became more relaxed and began thoroughly enjoying the activities; they repeated the exercises and even took video of some of the more complicated yet very useful techniques.
At the end of the workshop, the nurses were asked to fill out a questionnaire to provide feedback to the instructors. The results show that although 54% of the nurses use ergonomic moving and handling techniques on a regular basis, only 15% of them had been properly trained. Likely a result of inadequate training, 70% of the nurses suffer from back pain. The organizers were pleased to see that the nurses had found the course useful (100%), would like to use at least one of the presented techniques (100%), and would happily use a lateral-tilt bed on a daily basis (97%). There were also many comments, most of which expressed the following: “Such workshops are very useful, and I would recommend them to as many of my colleagues as possible.”
