Relationship between the musculoskeletal disorders with the ergonomic factors in nurses

Although the musculoskeletal disorder has been known as a serious, fundamental and costly problem among the nurses, few studies have conducted to determine the underlying causes in Iran. The aim of this study was to inspect the outbreak of musculoskeletal disorder and the ergonomic factors related to it among the nurses. In this cross-sectional study, 400 samples of nurses in Amol hospitals (a city in Mazandaran province, Iran) with census method were studied. To obtain the required information and distinction of the musculoskeletal disorder outbreak the changed Nordic questionnaires and Yip study were used. 81% of the nurses experienced backache, 29.5% had wrist ache, 50% had pain round their neck, 35.5% had pain in their shoulders, and 63.5%had painful knee at least once during the last year. Females have neck ache and backache 122% and 203% more than males, respectively. Among the investigated ergonomic factors, bending over the patients’ bed in order to do the nursing job enhances the wrist pain in nurses; the neck pain is also increased by moving and lifting the wards instruments and raising the hands higher than the shoulder level. Another factor that amplifies the back ache is bending to lift something from the floor. One of the most serious problems in nursing job is musculoskeletal disorder which is directly related to different factors such as bending, patient and wards instrument displacement, helping the patients to bathe them; so instructing the nurses in order to teach them how to use the movement aid items in wards can be effective in reducing the arisen factors.