Ergonomics and the Musculoskeletal Disorders in the Work of Nurses

Abstract

Ergonomics in healthcare industry is still in its early stages. The role of healthcare personnel is to take care of population's health. This is why it is very important to care about healthcare personnel. First, this article is a presentation of a survey conducted in Slovakia. The survey focused on nurses working in inpatient departments. Therefore, the main objective was to verify the physical nursing workload and determine the most frequent musculoskeletal disorders of nurses. The survey was conducted by using the Nordic Questionnaire. The results of the survey confirm the most serious difficulties for nurses with a musculoskeletal apparatus. Moreover, the results also show pain-related dependence in one body part of a nursing professional depending on his or her profile. The second part of the article shows model situations that may occur in nursing work and the physical loading they impose on health of nursing professionals.