Investigating the Risk of Patient Manual Handling Using the Movement and Assistance of Hospital Patients Method among Hospital Nurses in Botswana.

BACKGROUND: Evidence on the prevalence of lower back pain (LBP) among nurses is widespread in the literature, with several risk factors being reported. These include manual handling of patients, repetitive bending and twisting movements, and long working hours. It is reported that LBP has negative health outcomes and causes poor work performance among healthcare workers (HCWs). The magnitude of ergonomic risks associated with these healthcare activities has not been adequately investigated in Botswana. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the ergonomic risk levels associated with the manual handling of patients and its association with the prevalence of LBP among nurses in Botswana. METHODS: This was an observational cross-sectional hospital-based study conducted in a Botswana public tertiary hospital from March to April 2023. The Movement and Assistance of Hospital Patients (MAPO) tool was used to collect data on ergonomic risk levels. Data on the demographic characteristics of participants were collected using a tool adapted from the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (NMQ). Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were estimated to determine the association between ergonomic risk levels and the prevalence of LBP. RESULTS: A total of 256 nurses participated and completed the study. The self-reported prevalence of LBP in this study was 76.6%. The risk of acquiring LBP was high (90.5%) based on the MAPO index. Although the frequencies of self-reported LBP were high among nurses, these did not show any significant association with the MAPO index data. This could be partly due to the small sample size. CONCLUSIONS: There was a high prevalence of LBP in this study, which was corroborated by the MAPO index data. This has demonstrated the value of the MAPO index in forecasting the risk of patient manual handling. The findings might help Botswana formulate policies intended to address ergonomic preventive measures, directed towards reducing the MAPO index score by addressing the single risk determinants.

The distribution of work-related musculoskeletal disorders among nurses in sub-Saharan Africa: a scoping review protocol.

BACKGROUND: Although measures have been put in place, musculoskeletal injuries are noticeable high among the nursing fraternity with low back pain (LBP) being the most prevalent. It is evident that healthcare professionals are in constant exposure to occupational hazards such as musculoskeletal injuries as they discharge their professional duties. Not only does LBP affect the health of the nurses, it also creates a huge burden on the health systems with consequent poor performance at the workplace as well as economic burden. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to map evidence on the prevalence, incidence, mortality, risk factors, and economic costs of musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This is a scoping review because we want to map the evidence of MSD among nurses in SSA and to identify the scope of body literature in which the findings will be used for planning the intervention study thereafter. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Scoping review will be done to explore, describe, and map literature on the prevalence, incidence, mortality, risk factors, and economic costs related to MSD among nurses in SSA. The search will be done using databases such as PubMed, EBSCOHOST, Scopus, Web of Science, Science direct, Sabinet, WorldCat Local (iCatalogue), MEDLINE, CINAHL, Google Scholar, nursing academic editions, and World Health Organization (WHO) library databases. The search will look for primary studies within peer-reviewed articles as well as gray literature. In addition, the researcher will search for articles using keywords from the included studies as well as the list of references for related studies. The screening will be guided by Arksey and O'Malley's framework which has five steps to be followed: (I) identifying the research question, (II) identifying relevant studies, (III) study selection, (IV) charting the data, and (V) collating, summarizing, and reporting the results, and the scoping review will be reported in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist. A thematic content analysis will be used to give the narrative account of the review; using NVivo version 11 software, two independent reviewers will follow the three stages outlined by the thematic synthesis theory: (a) coding the findings of the included studies line-by-line, (b) organizing these free codes into related areas to construct descriptive themes, and (c) developing analytical themes. The outcome of coding will be verified and discussed with a third reviewer. The process of cross-checking the outcomes of coding of each included article will be discussed thoroughly. DISCUSSION: At the end, this study anticipates to uncover the relevant literature in SSA in regard to the prevalence, incidence, mortality, risk factors, and economic costs related to MSD among nurses; furthermore, findings from this study will help in identifying research gaps; informing policy, priority in funding, and planning; and guiding future research.