Ergonomic and demographic issues reported by palliative care workers in southern Taiwan

Aim: To investigate ergonomic and demographic issues reported by palliative care workers in southern Taiwan. Method: A structured questionnaire was completed by staff members from 11 nursing homes within southern Taiwan. Questions focused on age, sex, height, weight, shift-work details, duration of current employment, nature of current employment, the presence of injury and pain during the past 12 months, the phase lag before the onset of injury, and sick leave details. Results: A total of 125 health-care workers were recruited. Most were female (89.3 percent) and employed full-time (64.8 percent) as patient care assistants (55.2 percent). Most workers were regularly involved in patient-handling tasks (61.6 percent). Almost half (36.8 percent) had suffered a musculoskeletal disorder within the previous year. Lower back injury was reported by 12.0 percent of all employees. Changing patients’ clothes and changing their bed linen were associated statistically with musculoskeletal injury (odds ratio (OR) 2.9, 95 percent confidence interval (CI) 1.4-6.3 and OR 2.8, 95 percent CI 1.4-6.1), respectively. Moving the patients was also related to injury during our research (OR 2.5, 95 percent CI 1.2-5.4). Conclusion: This study has revealed various ergonomic and demographic issues reported by palliative care workers in southern Taiwan for the first time. The prevalence of certain injuries and symptoms are different from other reports.