Quick tips on simple ergonomic changes to reduce health care worker aches and pains
‘Doing 21st century work with 20th century furniture’
Health systems typically have limited resources when it comes to making ergonomic changes in their facilities. However, there are some simple ways to improve work stations for hospital staff that will not break an organization’s budget.
Here are some suggestions:
Use adjustable chairs: Often, hospital work stations are at fixed heights. If it’s not feasible to replace these with adjustable stations, then the health system could use adjustable chairs, suggests Rick Barker, MA, CPE, senior consultant at Humantech in Cincinnati, OH.
This change should include placing the chair adjustment instructions on the wall, not underneath the chair, Barker says.
“If you put those underneath the chair people won’t bend over to look at them, and we all know how little time employees have for inservices — particularly if it’s about their chairs,” he says.
Some stations are taller because that’s where patients’ families will approach hospital staff.
“That’s one element of 21st century work on 20th century furniture,” Barker says. “Employees are trying to do simultaneous customer service work and computer entry work, and this creates a challenge.”
While computer entry work might require a lower desk and work area from an ergonomic perspective, customer service work requires someone to be several feet higher in order to talk to people, he adds.
One solution to providing a work station that works both from computer entry and customer service perspectives is to have chairs that adjust to one of three different stops, according to height, at these stations, Barker says.
“They can rotate the chair to one of those different stops that would best suit their height,” he explains. “That’s an intuitive way to let different height people use the chair easily.”
Provide adjustable footrests: Another simple change is to have an adjustable footrest for staff of different heights, Barker adds.
“Having an easy-to-adjust footrest that you can move up and down with your foot is really helpful for different height people, especially if they’re going to be sitting there for a while,” Barker says.
Consider adjustable keyboards: Adjustable keyboard trays will allow a worker to move the keyboard up and down, according to what’s comfortable for them. This change can help prevent ergonomic shoulder and wrist injuries even when the cabinetry is fixed, Barker says.
Create standing computer stations: It’s possible to have standing work stations where computer work can be done. “Instead of sitting on a chair, you can have these lean-against stools where you’re leaning back a little bit, and it keeps you at the same heights as people standing at the station,” Barker says.
Give employees a variety of work spaces: Health care organizations can reduce sitting disease and ergonomic problems by giving employees a variety of places to work, Barker says.
For example, an employee could sometimes work at a standing work station and other times in the day work at a seated work station, he suggests.
“Or if they need to be at the same spot all the time, give them a variety of tasks so they’re not seated continuously,” Barker says.
“It’s harder for clerks and secretaries to get up because you want them in the stations,” he says.
But since these workers often are asked to be front-line customer service representatives, it might work best to have their desks near a customer service work station, so they can stand up and greet customers throughout their day, he says.
“They can change back and forth between the two,” he says.
“We want people moving and changing positions,” Barker adds. “It’s just a sedentary world right now, and sitting disease has become a very prevalent thing that everybody wants to talk about.”
Health systems typically have limited resources when it comes to making ergonomic changes in their facilities. However, there are some simple ways to improve work stations for hospital staff that will not break an organization’s budget.Subscribe Now for Access
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