Over 70 per cent of nurses in the country are battling crippling back pains from daily chores in their respective places of work, a study by Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology has established

Lifting patients in bed, from the floor and transferring them are among the job activities most commonly reported as sources of back pain, medically identified as Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders (WRMSD) among nurses according to the study done in Kakamega.

Major problems

The study’s results can be replicated across the country, and shows that the disorders arise from healthcare workers performing the same task frequently.

Four researchers drawn from the university’s departments of Health Promotion and Sports Science and that of Public Health said the objective of the study was to investigate the risk factors for the disorders. “The study found that 73.8 per cent of the nurses had major problems while performing the same task repeatedly,” states the study: Risk Factors for Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders among Nurses in Kakamega County Kenya.

Micky Olutende, Issah W. Kweyui, Maximilla Wanzala, and Elizabeth Mse published the study in the university’s Open Access Library Journal in April this year.

The study demonstrates that lack of adequate staffing in hospitals had overstretched the capacity of the nurses forcing them to attend to many patients than they can manage.

As of 2020, Kenya had 63,580 registered nurses with the active workforce in Kenya having a ratio of 103.4 nurses per 100,000 population against WHO recommended 250 health care workers – doctors, nurses and midwives – per 100,000 population.

The researchers noted that 76.9 per cent of the nurses had major problems when attending to a high number of patients and performing manual orthopaedic technique, respectively in a single day.

Nurses usually perform their daily task for instance, carrying out injection procedures, taking weights and body measurements doing it over and over as observed in this study. “These are related to WRMSD especially if it’s done in an awkward and poor posture. This clearly indicates that performing a given task over and over again is a major cause of WRMSD among nurses,” the researchers noted.

These work tasks such as pushing and pulling of heavy load mostly affected the neck, elbows and the lower back with the study pointing out that it put nurses at high risk for acute and cumulative musculoskeletal disorders.

Of those interviewed regarding pausing or having enough breaks during working hours, 81.5 per cent of the nurses had a major problem when they did not pause or break. “This risk factor contributes to high pre-valence rate of WRMSD among nurses,” the study noted, with the researchers recommending that this can be alleviated by a mandatory introduction of tea, lunch and sleep breaks during night shift hours.

There was significant association between not having enough breaks or pauses during working hours and the musculoskeletal disorders among the study participants.

Breaks, the study observes, also improve nurses’ concentration while carrying out their procedures and it helps to reduce the level of making errors during operations.

“Since majority of nurses have a lot work load to cover and seeing a lot of patients in a single long shift, because of under staffing this contribute to high incidence rate of WRMSD among nurses in Kakamega County,” the study shows.

In a similar study, the number of hours per week and daily breaks in direct patient care had no significant association with WMSD among the nurses.

However, there was a significant association between working in awkward and cramped position and the disorders among the study participants.

Findings showed that 69.2 per cent of the respondents had major problem when bending or twisting their back in an awkward way on the line of their duties. “There was significant association between bending or twisting the back in awkward/poor postures and the WRMSD among the study participants,” the study notes.

Akward posture

The study further finds that almost all procedures carried out by the nurses involves awkward and cramped position for instance, dressing of wounds and assisting mothers to give birth. These positions, the study notes that they contribute much to causing WRMSD among nurses. “Working in the same position with awkward postures contributes also to high rate of WRMSD among nurses. For instance, when carrying out orthopaedic procedures,” it says.

These findings are consistent with previous reports indicating manual patient handling, transferring or moving as important predictors of musculoskeletal disorders and low back pain among nurses.