Safe Lifting Toolkit
This toolkit is designed to help healthcare facilities implement safe lifting best practices and train staff in proper lifting techniques to promote safety and reduce employee injuries.
Education and Training
Employee training on safe lifting is an important component to preventing injuries. The resources in this section will provide organizations with a means to properly train their employees on lifting in areas outside of patient care.
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OSHA Ergonomics: Healthcare Wide Hazards
An interactive tool developed by OSHA to educate on hazards in the healthcare environment. This tool provides mitigation strategies for some of the most common risks to employees in healthcare such as ergonomics, patient handling, and postures.
Best Practices and Safe Lifting Principles
Certain practices are important to preventing injury when lifting materials within the healthcare organization. Resources provided in this section will be helpful in reminding employees of the best practices that should be used prior to performing a lift.
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Proper Lifting Techniques
A document that spells out the universal best practices of safe lifting techniques across any industry. This is a handy tool that can be printed out and hung as a poster or could be used during an in-service to review safe lifting principles with staff.
Risk Assessment Tools
Evaluating proper lifting techniques and comparing them against safe lifting best practices is useful when trying to identify opportunities for improvement. Tools in this section are examples of tools that can be used to improve performance.
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Safe Lifting Checklist for EVS
The Environmental Services department is exposed to many hazards related to lifting. This risk assessment is designed for the EVS Manager to do an evaluation of the department to identify common hazards against best practices related to safe lifting plans and hazard identification, job design, workplace practices, and training.
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Materials Handling Checklists
A risk assessment checklist for those working in the materials handling area. This checklist was originally created by Enos, HumanFit in 2012 and addresses load, tasks, working environment and individual capacity.
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Safe Lifting Observation Checklist
This is a tool that would be excellent for departments working on safe lifting performance improvement. The tool facilitates data collection through observation of others while lifting.
Online Safe Lifting Resources
The additional online resources in this section provide information related to safe lifting best practices.
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Stages of Lifting
The University of North Carolina has an excellent resource on Lifting and Material Handling. This resource describes the Stages of Lifting.
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General Lifting Techniques and Back Safety
Indiana University offers excellent resources on Safe Lifting Techniques that include information on general techniques and back safety.
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Proper Lifting Techniques Sample Brochure
Developed by a Physical Therapy group in Delaware, this is a great example of a brochure developed to demonstrate proper lifting techniques. Something similar could be used to educate staff or patients.