Nurses are under-represented in claims being brought for work-related manual handling injuries sustained in the Irish healthcare system, a new survey conducted on behalf of the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) has found.
The study found that hospital attendants accounted for the highest number of claimants with catering staff accounting for the second-highest number of claimants who sought compensation for injuries suffered as a result of manual handling incidents.
This was an unexpected finding as much of the previous literature had found that nurses were the healthcare staff who were mostly affected by manual handling incidents, noted the authors of the recently published HSA-commissioned report.
The study, Analysis of the causes and costs of the manual handling incidents in the healthcare sector, was carried out by Sara Dockrell of Trinity College Dublin, Muriel Johnson of Occupational Physiotherapy Solutions Ltd and Joe Ganly of Joe Ganly International Ltd.
The authors posit a number of theories why nurses are under-represented in the study which found that 63.3 per cent of incidents were caused by lifting a heavy or awkward load including patients, "while 23.3 per cent was caused by staff catching or handling a falling patient", the authors say. "It may be that other studies have focused on nursing staff and therefore their findings relate solely to them. It may be the case that nurses in Ireland are not involved in manual handling incidents. It may also be the case that nurses are not reporting incidents or injuries," they said.
"A further explanation is that nurses are involved in manual handling incidents but the incidents are not developing into claims. These reasons may partly explain why nurses are under-represented in this sample."
The study found the majority of claims, some 74.3 per cent, were for a back injury with 51 per cent of claimants suffering injury in handling a patient task with 49 per cent of claimants suffering injury while handling an inanimate object. The study also found that claimants were more likely to be carrying out manual handling tasks on their own when the incident happened and only 9 per cent of claimants were using manual handling equipment at the time of the incident.
The study was based on an analysis of lifting claims against the health boards taken between January 1st, 2000 and December 31st, 2002 as provided by insurers and it was found that the 35 claims which met the criteria set out by the researchers cost a total of €2,393,527.23.
The study found that a large majority of claimants, some 91.4 per cent, took sick leave with a trend towards lengthy periods of sick leave being noted as "a cause for concern" with more than 50 per cent of claimants taking more than 52 weeks' sick leave.
Some 58 per cent of claimants returned to work but 42 per cent did not return and this high drop-out rate may be related to poor communication between employer and employee and raises questions about the management of the injured worker, suggested the authors.
The authors recommended a multifaceted approach to prevention and management of manual handling incidents with non-care staff being targeted specifically in any strategy to prevent manual handling incidents.