Handle With Care®: The American Nurses Association’s Campaign to Address Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders

Abstract

In response to the significant number and severity of work-related back injuries and other musculoskeletal disorders among nurses, the American Nurses Association (ANA) has launched the Handle With Care® campaign*. The campaign seeks to build a health care industry-wide effort to prevent back and other musculoskeletal injuries. This is being done through developing partnerships and coalitions, education and training, increasing use of assistive equipment and patient-handling devices, reshaping nursing education to incorporate safe patient handling, and pursuing federal and state ergonomics policy by highlighting technology-oriented safe-patient handling benefits for patients and nurses. In the absence of ergonomics regulations at national or state levels that protect health care workers, ANA has taken on alternative approaches to encourage a movement to control ergonomic hazards in the health care workplace and prevent back injuries among the nation’s nursing workforce.