Patient-handling risk extends beyond lifting

Beyond the lift

When manual handling is discussed in healthcare, attention often centres on lifting patients or completing major transfers.

Current Australian workers' compensation data shows that the risk is broader. Safe Work Australia reports that the nursing, care and support workforce experienced a serious musculoskeletal claim frequency rate 2.3 times the national average in 2022–23. Across the preceding decade, body stressing accounted for an average of 47.6% of serious claims within this workforce.

What the data tells us

A particularly important finding is that many body-stressing claims did not involve conventional lifting or carrying.

Within body-stressing claims for the nursing, care and support workforce, 60% involved muscular stress while handling objects other than lifting, carrying or putting them down.

This category can include activities involving forceful pushing, pulling, moving, holding or handling. The data does not isolate patient repositioning as a single cause, but it reinforces an important point: patient-handling risk is not limited to the moment a patient is lifted.

Routine activities may also create significant physical exposure, including:

• moving a patient across a surface
• boosting a patient in bed
• turning or repositioning
• holding or supporting a patient
• pushing beds or clinical equipment
• working in sustained or awkward postures

Repeated tasks deserve structured attention

Some handling activities may appear relatively minor when considered individually. However, the level of risk also depends on how frequently the task occurs, the force required and the posture adopted.

For clinical teams, this means everyday movements should be assessed with the same discipline applied to larger transfers.

Relevant questions include:

• How much physical effort is required?
• How often is the task performed?
• Can the patient participate?
• Is the working posture restricted?
• Is suitable equipment available?
• Can friction or repeated adjustment be reduced?

A broader patient-handling strategy

A comprehensive patient-handling system should address the full range of movements occurring across the care pathway.

This includes:

• lateral transfer
• turning
• repositioning
• bed boosting
• floor recovery
• hoist transfer
• seated transfer

The Safe Work Australia data strengthens the case for looking beyond isolated lifting events and examining how routine work is actually performed throughout a shift.

Reducing patient-handling exposure starts with recognising where that exposure occurs.