A Study in the Physical Load related to Working Posture with Nurses in ICU

중환자실 간호사의 작업자세에 따른 신체부담도에 관한 연구

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the physical load by identifying harmfully working postures and to develop recommendations for improving the existing situation with nurses in ICU, thereby to provide the basis for development of work-related musculoskeletal preventive program. Method: Various types of tasks were recorded with a video camera to chart and analyze different postures by OWAS(Ovako Working Posture Analysing System). Collected data showed that poor postures were adopted, not only for lifting or repositoning a patient, but also for other tasks. Data Analysis: The performed activities were then divided into Nursing Intervention Classification. Altogether 128 postures were selected for analysis. Then they were classified into different OAC (OWAS Action Categories). From all the observation, unhealthy postures, for which corrective measures had to be considered immediately (i.e., 75% classified as OACII+III+IV) were found. Collected data were analyzed in terms of percentage, 2-tail Mann-Whitney U test. Result: Poor postures mainly occur during 'positioning the patient' and 'airway suctioning' in NIC. No difference was found (p=0.060) between the percentage of harmful posture adopted during the patient handling tasks and non-patient handling tasks. Conclusion: This study shows, that in the nursing profession with ICU not only occur during patient handling, but also during other activities. The OWAS method was useful in determining the physical load by locating potential activities due to harmfully working postures, providing a detailed description with analysis, and suggesting successful means to reduce postural load.