No More Unsafe Patient Handling

Click to see a map of state legislative action on this topic

In part due to increasingly large and immobile patients, direct care nursing is one of the most dangerous jobs there is. 

Establishing a safe patient handling standard for direct-care registered nurses is a critical component in increasing patient safety, protecting nurses and addressing the nurse shortage.  In 2006, in Washington State enacted legislation that will promote safe patient handling and reduce injuries among health care workers by establishing a Safe Patient Handling Committee (with at least half of the Committee being direct care providers); the bill also requires a safe patient handling policy to prevent musculoskeletal disorders among health care workers and injuries to patients. Hospitals are mandated to acquire much-needed lifting equipment and provide staff training.

In 2005, three states enacted safe patient handling and movement legislation. New York legislation will fund a safe patient handling demonstration program. The bill authorizes a two-year study to establish safe patient handling programs throughout the state to build upon existing evidence-based data, with the ultimate goal of designing a "best" practice for safe patient handling in New York State health care facilities. The bill also establishes specifications for safe patient handling programs.  Ohio enacted legislation that requires the Administrator of Workers' Compensation to use funds in the Long-Term Care Loan Fund to make loans without interest to nursing home employers to pay for specified equipment and training for employers to implement a policy of no manual lifting of residents by employees.  Legislation enacted in Texas requires the governing body of a hospital or the quality assurance committee of a nursing home to adopt and ensure implementation of a policy to identify, assess, and develop strategies to control risk of injury to patients and nurses associated with the lifting, transferring, repositioning or movement of a patient.  

As of 2005, safe patient handling legislation was introduced in CA, IA, MA, MN, and NJ.

In 1996, California enacted an ergonomics regulation referring to repetitive motion injuries. This rule requires the consideration of engineering controls to minimize exposures that cause repetitive motion injuries.

Click on the links below to learn more about which states are acting on these key issues (data is current to the end of the most recent state legislative cycle, which concluded in 2005 for most states):

• Nurse staffing ratios
• Nurse staffing plans
• Mandatory overtime ban
• Safe patient handling and movement
• Whistleblower protection
• Universal health care