VA hospitals, including one in Loma Linda, Calif., is reducing the rate of lifting injuries by investing in equipment and training, according to an article on the NPR website.
To lift patients, nurses attach a hook dangling from the ceiling to a fabric sling wrapped around the patient's body. They push the button on a control box and the machine slowly hoists the patient in the sling a few feet over the bed, swung him until he was dangling in midair over a waterproof wheelchair, and then gently lowered him.
Other patients are lifted using a floating mattress called a HoverMatt, which uses air streams that lift the mattress, making it easy for nursing employees to move a patient from a bed to a gurney.
The VA's campaign to protect nursing staff started in the late 1990s when one of its hospital directors asked colleagues why so many of the hospital's nursing employees were getting hurt.
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