The Study of Nursing Personnel, s Workload Caused by Patient Transferring

One of the nursing staff’s responsibilities is patient transferring. The disproportionate burden imposed on the person according to his ability is the most important causes of occupational accidents and injuries. This study was aimed to evaluate nurse's workload caused by patient transferring in khatam ol anbiya hospital (s) in Tehran.
This was a descriptive- analytic study. Its research community is all Khatam (s) nursing staff 260 of which were selected using convenience sampling and Morgan table. Using patient transfer assessment index (PTAI), the staff’s scores were calculated in terms of transfer and finally the data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (average and standard deviation), inferential statistics (Pearson correlation coefficient, Anova) and SPSS.
The people involved in the study had the average age (35.40±6.65yrs), work experience (11.36±5.71yrs), hight (1.73±5.79m) and weight (73.82±8.72kg), and body mass index (24.57±2.4). Statistical test results showed that none of the participants uses relocation equipment when transferring patients and based on PTAI, workload at danger level equaled to 0% at level 1, 8.07% at level 2, and 91.93% at level 3. Besides, nurse and nurse aid’s average PTAI score was equal to (32.83±17.14) and (42.25±12.46), respectively, which was significantly related to workload (P=0.001).
The results showed that the workload caused by patient transferring in nursing personnel is at a high risk. Thus, it is recommended to teach proper ergonomics principles and to use transfer equipment (non-mechanical and mechanical) in order to reduce the workload caused by patient transferring.