Preventive Strategies to Reduce Musculoskeletal Disorders of Nursing Personnel; A Systematic Review

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the preventive strategies to reduce musculoskeletal disorders of nursing personnel. The findings of this study stated that there are three key themes of strategies to handle the research puzzle. Physical facilities such as lifts, equipment, electric beds, footwear, and other equipment provide physical infrastructure to deal with the issue. Moreover, the findings revealed that the physical facilities alone may not be effective in the long run. The second theme focuses on guidelines, procedures, or principles such as education, staffing, no lift policy, a healthy lifestyle, the culture of safety, training on manual handling, workflow management, need analysis, and stories which provide the supportive structure in addressing the issue. We argue that physical facilities, procedures, guidelines, and principles alone may not work effectively in reducing the musculoskeletal disorders of nurses and there should be a simultaneous implementation of themes one and two. We introduce the Musculoskeletal Prevention Model to deal with the research issue.