Assessment of alternative methods for informal caregivers to perform patient repositioning tasks

Background: Manual patient handling tasks put formal and informal caregivers at risk of musculoskeletal injury. Intervention research to reduce risks to informal caregivers is limited. Design: This study examined effects of slide sheet use when individual informal caregivers performed patient boosting and turning tasks. Three methods of slide sheet use and a baseline method (no slide sheet) were compared, to reposition a 70 kg individual. Results: Muscle activity, ground reaction force, posture, and rating of perceived exertion were significantly affected by task method. Erector Spinae activity was reduced in boosting and turning away tasks with the slide sheet. Shoulder elevation, torso angle, and normalized vertical ground reaction force were also reduced with the slide sheet during boosting. The turn towards task was generally not improved with the slide sheet. Conclusion: Overall, using a slide sheet provided biomechanical benefits to individual caregivers performing two common patient handling tasks: boosting and turning patient away from caregiver.