Study finds injuries to aides and attendants high
Study finds injuries to aides and attendants high
Injury rates include highway accidents
Stress and strain are a part of almost any job, but home health workers have more than their share, says a recent government study.Overexertion while assisting patients, including strain from lifting, led all other ways in which home health care workers were injured, accounting for two-fifths of the industry’s reported cases. The rate of overexertion injuries in home care services — 183 per 10,000 workers — is more than double the corresponding national rate. It is also more than the overexertion injuries reported by hospitals (144 per 10,000 workers).
Can’t blame it all on overexertion
And overexertion is not the only problem. The 1994 injury rate in home health care services is about 50% higher than the injury rate in hospitals and 70% greater than the national rate, says Injuries to Caregivers Working in Patients’ Homes, a study from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).1 (See nature of injury chart, p. 92.)The study shows that about 18,800 injury cases involving nursing and home care aides were logged in 1994. Sixty-six percent of the injured home care workers were nursing aides and orderlies. (See chart on occupation, injuries, and days missed, p. 93.)
One reason the injury rate may be so high is that highway-related injuries sustained by home care personnel making house calls are included in the statistics. Injuries that occur while commuting prior to the start of the workday or after it ends are not counted as work-related injuries. The industry’s rate of highway-related injuries (76 per 10,000 workers) ranked fourth — behind taxicab services (98), school buses (91), and local bus transportation (78).
Injury rates always exceed hospitals’
When highway-related injuries are excluded from the totals, the home health care rate (398 cases per 10,000 workers) still exceeds the corresponding rate in hospitals by nearly 25% and the national rate by almost 50%.The resulting absence from work due to injury usually lasted one to two weeks. (See chart, p. 93.) In 1994, the rate of lost work-time injuries was 474 per 10,000 equivalent full-time workers in the home care industry, 11¼2 times the corresponding rate in all private services. (See chart p. 93.)
The injuries reported suggest that there are relatively high-injury risks associated with working in and around patients’ homes, the study says.
"[Staff] are at risk just going out in the community, especially making calls in high-risk areas," says Sharon Morris, BSN, RN, PHN, director of Beaufort-Hilton Head Health Care System in Hilton Head, SC.
"We have all kinds of things to contend with in home care that you don’t in a controlled setting," adds Mary St. Pierre, MGA, director of regulatory affairs for the Home Care Aide Association in America in Washington, DC. "Dog bites, for example."
"You’re [also] in an environment where you don’t have control over what type of bed the patient has or whether they have needed [lifting] equipment," she adds.
Working alone is a risk, too, and private duty home health staff usually don’t have the luxury of asking other team members to help them if there are problems. Still, Morris and other providers say their experiences do not coincide with the figures in the study.
A personnel agency in Baltimore that refers RNs, LPNs, and home health aides also has not seen an injury problem. "We don’t experience that at all," says Elizabeth Weglein, director of Elizabeth Cooney Personnel Agency. "We’ve been in business for 40 years, and I can count on one hand the number of injuries." (Nurses’ registries and registered or practical nurses engaged in the independent practice of their profession were excluded from the study.)
Proper training in lifting techniques can eliminate many overexertion injuries, especially if the employees know they can refuse unsafe situations, St. Pierre says. Training in driving techniques and safety awareness also can reduce problems.
Overexertion problems sometimes occur, though, when employees "feel sorry" for a patient and take on more than they can handle, says St. Pierre. (For more information on reducing the incidence of back and neck injuries, see Private Duty Homecare, July 1997, p. 73.)
Remember proper training is crucial
A key is for both employers and workers, she says, to be aware of all possibly hazardous situations and take steps through training and education to prevent injuries.[Editor’s note: For more information on the study, Injuries to Caregivers Working in Patients’ Homes, call the Bureau of Labor Statistics at (202) 606-6175.]
Reference
1. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Injuries to Caregivers Working in Patients’ Homes. Summary 97-4. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Labor; February 1997.
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