Efficacy and Usability of a Virtual Simulation Training System for Health and Safety Hazards Encountered by Healthcare Workers.

OBJECTIVE: This study evaluated the efficacy, usability, usefulness, and desirability (UUD) of a Home Healthcare Interactive Virtual Simulation Training System (HH-VSTS) designed to train home healthcare workers (HHWs) and healthcare students to identify and respond to health and safety hazards in client homes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Participants were randomly assigned to either the HH-VSTS training group or to the paper-based training group. The HH-VSTS group completed three HH-VSTS Training Modules on a laptop/desktop computer. The training modules addressed hazard identification, hazard rationale, and hazard response to electric/fire/burn, slip/trip/lift, and environmental hazards. The paper-based training group reviewed identical information in a written hard-copy format. Both groups completed an HH-VSTS Assessment module. Participants completed demographic/background and UUD questionnaires, and in-system metrics measured their performance on hazard identification, rationale, and response. RESULTS: Participants (n = 74) were HHWs and students in health profession programs. There were no significant differences in participants' ability to correctly identify hazards, rationale, or how to address them. Participants identified over 90% of hazards, although fewer participants were able to correctly identify what makes an item a hazard or how to manage it. For those in the HH-VSTS group, over 83% found the HH-VSTS easy to use, over 94% agreed the HH-VSTS was useful, and over 80% liked it. CONCLUSION: The HH-VSTS provided and engaging, efficacious training that was as effective as a typical paper-based training. In addition, the HH-VSTS is usable by a variety of end users, regardless of computer or gaming experience.

Conceptual frameworks for the workplace change adoption process: elements integration from decision making and learning cycle process.

Sound workplace ergonomics and safety-related interventions may be resisted by employees, and this may be detrimental to multiple stakeholders. Understanding fundamental aspects of decision-making, behavioural change, and learning cycles may provide insights into pathways influencing employees' acceptance of interventions. This manuscript reviews published literature on thinking processes and other topics relevant to decision making and incorporates the findings into two new conceptual frameworks of the workplace change adoption process. Such frameworks are useful for thinking about adoption in different ways and testing changes to traditional intervention implementation processes. Moving forward, it is recommended that future research focuses on systematic exploration of implementation process activities that integrate principles from the research literature on sense-making, decision-making, and learning processes. Such exploration may provide the groundwork for development of specific implementation strategies that are theoretically grounded and provide a revised understanding of how successful intervention adoption processes work. Practitioner summary: Adoption and acceptance of workplace changes may be facilitated through sound implementation strategies. This manuscript explores several principles of sense-making and decision-making processes that can potentially be used by industrial practitioners to inform the design and development of implementation strategies for interventions that improve workplace ergonomics and safety. ABBREVIATIONS:  Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs); National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH); National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA); Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

Biomechanical response of a lumbar intervertebral disc to manual lifting activities: a poroelastic finite element model study.

STUDY DESIGN: Determination of damage to a lumbar disc caused by lifting using a poroelastic finite element model study. OBJECTIVE: Compare the biomechanical response of a lumbar disc under 8 different lifting conditions and identify the loading conditions that produce the greatest deformations and highest stresses in various tissue components of the disc. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: Lifting has been associated epidemiologically with back injuries and back pain complaints. Forces high enough to cause mechanical damage to the disc have been predicted using analytical methods. METHODS: Using kinematic data from series of lifts obtained in our laboratories and an electromyography (EMG)-driven muscle optimization model, representative force patterns for each of 8 lifts were obtained and used as input into a poroelastic finite element model. Disc tissue displacements and stresses were determined for all the 8 lift conditions. RESULTS.: Lifting the box from a maximally lateral flexed posture up to waist level (Task 5) produced the largest translational and rotational motions of all studied. This lift activity also produced maximum von Mises stresses in all disc components: annulus, nucleus, and endplates. The largest facet joint forces were also observed during lift Task 5. CONCLUSION: Asymmetric lifting involving lateral bending of the trunk produced large motions that might cause localized disc tissue injury. Stresses larger than the failure strength of the corresponding disc tissues were experienced during asymmetric lifting. Lifting that involves lateral bending of the trunk was the most hazardous type of loading with regard to damage to the disc.