Other Titles

Clinical Session: Collaborating to Develop Safe Work Environments

Abstract

Session presented on Sunday, April 14, 2013:

This session will introduce and describe the collaborative process the American Nurses Association used to develop the multi-disciplinary and multi-setting Safe Patient Handling and Mobility National Standards. The goal of the standards is to establish a uniform, national foundation for programs to improve safety for patients and health care workers. The national standards are intended to be: multidisciplinary/intraprofessional across a variety of settings; realistic and attainable, but raising the bar; evidence-based and outcomes focused; ready to be incorporated into practices, policies, procedures, and regulation; disseminated with toolkits, model language, and other resources. This work groundbreaking and highly-anticipated; national standards for safe patient handling and mobility do not currently exist. The process to develop the standards has truly been collaborative. Recognizing the important role of many disciplines in the prevention of musculoskeletal disorders, ANA convened a multi-disciplinary working group of subject matter experts. The working group included nurses, nursing assistants, ergonomists, economists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, equipment vendors, and other disciplines. The speaker will outline the challenges and successes experienced during this collaborative process, as well as lessons learned. In additional to learning about the collaborative process, the session will also provide a brief overview of the eight standards. Topic areas include creating a culture of safety, guidelines for implementing and sustaining a program, incorporating prevention through design, managing technological resources, educating and training staff, and evaluating the program. This portion of the presentation will prepare the learner to begin applying the standards to enhance or implement safe patient handling efforts within their work environments.

Author Details

Suzy Harrington, DNP, RN, MCHES

Sigma Membership

Delta Alpha at-Large

Lead Author Affiliation

American Nurses Association, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA

Type

Presentation

Format Type

Text-based Document

Study Design/Type

N/A

Research Approach

N/A

Keywords:

Safe Patient Handling and Mobility, American Nurses Association, National Standards

Conference Name

Creating Healthy Work Environments 2013

Conference Host

Sigma Theta Tau International

Conference Location

Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

Conference Year

2013

Rights Holder

All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.

All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.

All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.

Review Type

Abstract Review Only: Reviewed by Event Host

Acquisition

Proxy-submission

Additional Files

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Safe patient handling and mobility national standards: A ground breaking collaborative effort

Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

Session presented on Sunday, April 14, 2013:

This session will introduce and describe the collaborative process the American Nurses Association used to develop the multi-disciplinary and multi-setting Safe Patient Handling and Mobility National Standards. The goal of the standards is to establish a uniform, national foundation for programs to improve safety for patients and health care workers. The national standards are intended to be: multidisciplinary/intraprofessional across a variety of settings; realistic and attainable, but raising the bar; evidence-based and outcomes focused; ready to be incorporated into practices, policies, procedures, and regulation; disseminated with toolkits, model language, and other resources. This work groundbreaking and highly-anticipated; national standards for safe patient handling and mobility do not currently exist. The process to develop the standards has truly been collaborative. Recognizing the important role of many disciplines in the prevention of musculoskeletal disorders, ANA convened a multi-disciplinary working group of subject matter experts. The working group included nurses, nursing assistants, ergonomists, economists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, equipment vendors, and other disciplines. The speaker will outline the challenges and successes experienced during this collaborative process, as well as lessons learned. In additional to learning about the collaborative process, the session will also provide a brief overview of the eight standards. Topic areas include creating a culture of safety, guidelines for implementing and sustaining a program, incorporating prevention through design, managing technological resources, educating and training staff, and evaluating the program. This portion of the presentation will prepare the learner to begin applying the standards to enhance or implement safe patient handling efforts within their work environments.