141st APHA Annual Meeting

In This section

279673
Introducing American nurses association's interdisciplinary safe patient handling and mobility national standards

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Suzy Harrington, DNP, RN, MCHES , Center for Health, Safety, and Wellness, American Nurses Association, Silver Spring, MD
This session will introduce and describe the American Nurses Association's groundbreaking Safe Patient Handling and Mobility (SPHM) National Standards. The groundbreaking standards will be released in the summer of 2013. The goal of the Standards is to establish a uniform, national foundation for SPHM programs to reduce healthcare worker and patient injuries. The Standards were developed by a national interdisciplinary working group of subject matter experts which included nurses, nursing assistants, ergonomists, economists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, equipment vendors, and several others. The national standards are intended to be interdisciplinary/ applicable across a variety of settings; realistic and attainable, but raising the bar; evidence-based and outcomes-focused; ready to be incorporated into practices, policies, procedures, and regulation; disseminated with toolkits, model language, and other resources. This session will provide an overview of the eight Standards and examples of implementing the Standards within the workplace. Content areas include creating a culture of safety, guidelines for implementing and sustaining a program, incorporating Prevention through Design, managing technological resources, educating and training staff, and evaluating the program. The presentation will prepare the learner to begin applying the Standards to enhance or implement Safe Patient handling and Mobility efforts within the workplace.

Learning Areas:
Administration, management, leadership
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Occupational health and safety
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Program planning
Systems thinking models (conceptual and theoretical models), applications related to public health

Learning Objectives:
Identify the history of and need for Safe Patient Handling and Mobility National Standards. Describe the key components of the eight Safe Patient Handling and Mobility National Standards. Identify methods for implementing Safe Patient Handling and Mobility Standards in the work place to reduce patient and health care worker injuries.

Keywords: Ergonomics, Occupational Safety

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the director of ANA's Center for Health, Safety, and Wellness and I have led the effort to develop the national Safe Patient Handling and Mobility National Standards.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.