Upgrading Hospital Beds Can Reduce The Risk Of Musculoskeletal Disorders Among Caregivers
The second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic took a heavy toll on India and greatly challenged our healthcare system. The visuals of the struggles of covid patients splashed across the news and were seared into consciousness.
But relatively unseen was the toll the pandemic took on our frontline COVID warriors - the armies of overworked doctors and nurses locked in a desperate life and death fight against the novel coronavirus, our healthcare workers.
While the lack of healthcare infrastructure took its toll on the patients, it also pushed our tired nurses and caregivers to their limits. This could have sowed the seeds of long-term health issues for them.
To begin with, the nurse to patient ratio in India is woefully inadequate. About 53 percent of the nurses in departments like medicine and surgery, all the more so in general wards, handle more than six patients each, according to a study conducted by Godrej Interio's Workspace and Ergonomics Research Cell. This is ratio is from the non-pandemic times.
The nurse-patient ratio should ideally be 1:3 for general wards in medical colleges and 1:5 for district hospitals, one in each clinic room of the OPD and 1:1 in ICU, ICCU and other critical care areas, as per Indian Nursing Council (INC) norms.
At the protracted peak of the pandemic, each nurse was acting as a caregiver to several more patients. Apart from the long hours, their work as caregivers can be quite physical. They need to turn the patients so they don’t develop sores, or move them to different beds. If a patient needs to be moved to the ICU or another ward, it’s their responsibility to physically shift them.
According to the Godrej Interio’s study, 43 percent of the nurses surveyed said they had to reposition the patient in the bed alone; the ideal technique is to have two people to make the job less strenuous. About 57 percent said they had the help of just one other person in shifting a fully dependent patient from one bed to another.
This extended physical toil, especially across the extended shifts nurses had to work during the peak of the pandemic can lead to them developing long-term musculoskeletal disorders.
About 90 percent of the nurses surveyed for the study said they suffered from suffered some form of musculoskeletal disorder due to the nature of their work.
But an upgrade in infrastructure can cut down that statistic, drastically. The best part? All it needs to be is an upgrade - a new, modern hospital bed.
Companies in India are today manufacturing cleverly-designed, easy-to-use hospital beds that can improve outcomes for all stakeholders - from patients to caregivers.
These are beds, like Godrej Interio’s own Chrysalis Nova Activ, that can improve patient comfort, enhance caregiver efficiency and allow hospitals to effectively manage their time and infrastructure, thereby allowing them to treat more patients.
Such beds are designed to make the healthcare experience less taxing for everyone involved. Lateral tilt functions allow nursing staff to tilt the bed via a digital touch attendant control panel, making it far easier for them to turn patients or move them to another bed or wheelchair. It also prioritises patient comfort as the lateral tilt takes the pressure off sores and ulcers. Moreover, it also guarantees patient safety, tilting only when the sideboards are closed and activating an alarm if it doesn’t sense the patient’s weight on the bed.
Something as simple as beds like these have the potential to drastically reduce the weight of a caregiver’s workload. They’re also cost-effective in the long run for hospitals to adopt. Our caregivers already face a hard task battling COVID-19. Surely, we can make it slightly easier for them.
