Patient Lifting - 3 Quick Tips on how to reduce your lift-load

One of the most common transfers that health care workers perform is assisting patients up from sitting to ambulate or pivot to another surface, i.e. wheelchair, recliner, toilet, bed. etc.
For this reason, this post will focus on sit-to-stand transfers.

Today we will look at 3 areas and give you 3 tips or strategies for safer and easier transfers.

A. Patient's Position:
Whether from the recliner, w/c, bed or toilet, most seniors will have the tendency to lean back. Painful arthritis, fear of falling forward or personal space issues are common reason they lean back during lifting.

Tip 1) Scoot patient forward and get their feet back. Then have them lean forward to get their shoulders over their toes. Most caregiver strain occurs during lifting while getting them to this position.


B. Equipment Needs:
Although patient's position is key, that alone is not enough for a safe and easy transfer. It can fail if their knees buckle or they have poor balance. You may need a sliding board, Smart Lift™ or a mechanical lift if they require a lot of assistance to transfer. Let's assume you have no equipment and they can remain standing once lifted.

Tip 2) Instead of lifting from the waist, have the patient push up using their arms and support their forearms just below the elbows. This helps avoid caregiver back strain. It will however, keep the caregiver from pulling up under the patient's underarms. (Keep in mind that this technique is not ideal for all patients and especially those who require much more assistance.)

C. Communicate:
Folks, this is obviously the most basic "common sense" approach. I have seen lots of caregivers distracted or in a hurry to get someone up and have forgotten to communicate with the patient before the transfer. If the patient has any amount of dementia or confusion, without instructions a stand-by-assist could turn into a max lift. They will resist your every move unless you show or tell them what you are doing.

Tip 3) Explain where you are moving the patient, how you will do it and most importantly, recruit their help. I can't count how many times I saw one caregiver perform a stand-by-assist while another another performs a mod or max assist transfer on the same patient. Why? It's very simple. Most patients will usually try to do as the caregiver has asked them to do.

You've heard that technique is everything. Well, it's absolutely key in patient mobility and I have thousands and thousands of lifts to prove it.
These 3 simple techniques can drastically reduce you lifting efforts if you will just take the time to implement them.

Happy Lifting or should I say Assisting.

Wade McKinney,PTA
TheTransferGuy