Injuries commonly covered under workers’ compensation, including back, neck and shoulder pain, continue to affect nurses throughout Colorado and the rest of the United States, according to a recent American Nurses Association (ANA) report. Almost 80 percent of nurses continue working despite pain caused by daily work activities, such as patient lifting and patient moving.
A Colorado workers’ compensation attorney understands that the jobs of health care workers, while important to all of us, can be hazardous to the health of those same workers. As safety equipment improves, workplace safety for nurses continues to improve, but the same problems reported in a 2001 survey are still problems today.
Overwork, stress, disabling injuries and exposure to infectious disease remained at the top of the list of workplace safety concerns for nurses. On the positive side, in 2001 only half of nurses reported having access to equipment that assists with lifting patients. In 2011, that number increased to 2/3 of those nurses surveyed.
Common Workplace Injuries Experienced By Colorado Nurses
Whether you’re a CNA, LPN or RN, the day-to-day patient contact that makes up a majority of nursing jobs can present risks of workplace injuries. Simply helping a patient into bed, into a wheelchair or to the restroom can end up tweaking, pulling or straining back, neck and shoulder muscles.
Similarly, it’s not uncommon for nurses to be injured while lifting a patient or even rolling a patient in order to change bed sheets. In fact, repetitive lifting injuries and related back injuries are quite common among health care professionals. When injuries happen while at work, Colorado workers’ compensation exists to get you the medical treatment you need without having to fight about who caused the injury and regardless of fault.
Source: McKnight’s, “Nurses continue to battle workplace-related pain; worker safety efforts have improved,” 19 December 2011
