[ti:A Room Where Nurses Learn How Not to Get Hurt] [ar:Steve Ember] [al:Technology Report] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]This is the VOA Special English Technology Report. [00:04.50]Nurses spend their lives helping other people [00:08.88]recover from injuries and illnesses. [00:12.26]Yet nurses suffer a surprising number of injuries [00:17.53]and illnesses themselves because of their work. [00:21.96]In fact, the United States Department of Labor says [00:26.40]nursing is the second leading profession [00:30.18]for on-the-job injuries. [00:33.07]It ranks higher than construction work and law enforcement. [00:38.06]Only freight and stock movers report higher injury rates. [00:44.24]Nurses and other health care workers [00:48.01]do a lot of heavy lifting on the job. [00:51.95]Lifting and moving patients improperly [00:56.14]leads to sprains, strains and muscle tears [01:01.02]-- leading causes of injuries to nurses. [01:04.90]Gretchen Gregory is an instructor [01:08.34]at the Sinclair School of Nursing [01:10.57]on the Columbia campus of the University of Missouri. [01:14.85]She says back problems are the greatest threat [01:19.13]that nurses face when they lift or move patients. [01:23.56]GRETCHEN GREGORY: "You're talking about people [01:24.87]that have handicaps or limited mobility, [01:27.26]that need much assistance. [01:29.84]And we have untrained people to do that assisting [01:33.39]and that puts them at risk for hurting their backs." [01:36.08]Ms. Gregory leads a new training room [01:38.97]where nurses can learn to keep themselves [01:42.31]and their patients safe. [01:44.90]She says most nurses lack training in how to lift patients. [01:50.92]GRETCHEN GREGORY: "That's not something that we teach in school, [01:53.17]but that's when falls happen and that's when nurses get hurt." [01:56.26]She says the safe practices room has special equipment, [02:01.13]including a life-size mannequin doll. [02:04.97]This "patient" can be made to weigh as much [02:09.10]as one hundred fifty-nine kilograms. [02:12.04]GRETCHEN GREGORY: "We have a mannequin [02:13.38]that we can fill up with water [02:16.46]and he becomes a three-hundred-and-fifty-pound mannequin [02:20.10]that they have to learn to use this transfer equipment [02:23.03]to get patients in and out of bed or [02:26.54]from another bed to a stretcher." [02:27.83]Ms. Gregory says most American hospitals [02:32.06]have lifting equipment to help nurses move patients. [02:36.73]But she says the equipment is often pushed back [02:40.82]in a corner somewhere -- unused and forgotten. [02:44.95]She says the safe practices room teaches [02:48.87]the importance of using the tools and skills available. [02:53.96]GRETCHEN GREGORY: "Teaching students to take the extra time [02:56.74]to use those and learning how to use them well [03:00.09]and efficiently is going to be a key [03:02.82]to helping prevent back injuries." [03:05.66]The training room also seeks to improve communication skills [03:10.34]and other practices in a setting designed [03:14.02]to copy a busy hospital or clinic. [03:17.36]GRETCHEN GREGORY: "If we provide an environment [03:18.90]where everything's nice and quiet [03:20.99]and they can give their medications [03:22.43]or they can communicate to a physician [03:24.12]when there's nothing going on, [03:25.67]that's not really a real-life setting. [03:28.21]They have to be able to do it with some distraction." [03:31.54]An unidentified donor gave three hundred thousand dollars [03:36.27]to build the new room. [03:38.21]The University of Missouri describes it [03:41.13]as one of the first of its kind [03:43.58]at a nursing school in the United States. [03:46.58]Pictures are at 51voa.com. [03:50.76]And that's the VOA Special English Technology Report, [03:56.13]written by June Simms. [03:58.13]I'm Steve Ember.