This speaker sponsored by:

If decisions on new equipment need to be made the choice may be difficult. Not only the financial aspects are important, but the technical and biomechanical quality of the equipment for both nurse and patient are of equal importance. Testing and trying the equipment beforehand may prevent disappointment and even worse: future occupational health problems and safety problems for patients (f.e. falls and an increase in the incidence of pressure ulcers). There are examples of equipment that indeed appears to solve one problem (f.e. no more excessive back load), but at the same time trigger another (f.e. lead to excessive shoulder load or compromise patient safety instead).

Biomechanical assessments and measurements

Basic measurements of the quality of the equipment beforehand may provide relevant information to help to make decisions. In this hands-on interactive workshop simple techniques will be shown. You can also try for yourself how to get a fairly good impression of the magnitude of forces developed during pulling, pushing, lifting and the static load during nursing tasks. We work with simple equipment that you can buy in most stores.  And, of course, we will present a clear description of the limitations of these tools and the moment that you do need to call in the help of more technical experts.

Interpretation of the results

Having the data is one thing, but how do you proceed from there? What is safe and when are these limits crossed for the different areas of the human body. Following the measurements we will therefore present the options for analyzing and interpreting the results and drawing conclusions relevant for daily practice in health care. For this purpose a brief overview will be given of simple biomechanical models that can be used in health care ergonomics and an App (in English) that has proven to be a practical tool in our country will be demonstrated.