Pain in the Neck

Before a UAW contract guaranteed them a voice on ergonomics issues, workers at St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center in Toledo, Ohio, were truly at the mercy of hospital administrators.

Photo: VINCE PISCOPO

RN Terri Smith and other nurses appreciate the new lift chair because it reduces injuries.

The UAW Health and Safety Department offers Practical Ergonomics Training, a three-day course to launch a facility’s ergonomics efforts, as well as shorter courses, to be delivered at the worksite without tuition charge. This program applies to service and office sector worksites, as well as manufacturing.

If they had one who cared, they might get that new piece of equipment that saved their backs while lifting patients.

Or they might get someone to listen when a vendor came in with the latest and greatest diagnostic machine, only to discover that it created unexpected stresses on nurses’ and medical technicians ’ bodies.

Or they might get a conscientious supervisor to listen when cleaning supplies were stacked so high that support staff couldn’t reach them without a ladder and a potential fall.

Or they might not.

And that’s really the point when it comes to proving the worth of UAW-negotiated ergonomics language, according to Sharon Maxcy, a registered nurse at St. Vincent’s and a member of the hospital’s health and safety committee.

“We are now aware that we can request an ergonomics study of any given area of the hospital,” Maxcy said. “Once they see we’re not out to cost them money – we’re here to save them money in the long run – they seem to be more receptive.”

St. Vincent’s employees were organized in 2000. While management wasn’t anti-ergonomics before workers won a contract, Maxcy said workers were not involved in ergonomics decisions. Those were left at the whim of individual managers.

“If a manager didn’t think it was a problem, it went nowhere,” she said.

The relationship between the union and management on ergonomics issues is good, said Maxcy, a steward of her UAW Local 12 unit.

“They really are listening when we do have a concern about ergonomics,” she said. “We’re able to channel through our committee and document it.”

A new cardiac care pavilion is being built at the hospital, and the union workers are involved in the planning so ergonomics issues can be addressed before anything is built, she said. Some examples:

• The mobile carts that hospital workers use to take information from patients are now fully adjustable so there isn’t unnecessary leaning or bending.

• Desks in the pain clinic are being adjusted to proper heights.

• Supplies are being restacked so they don’t force workers to get stepladders or fall on equipment that can, in turn, fall on workers.

• Restraints for difficult patients are being redesigned with nurses’ safety in mind.

Nurses love a new lift chair which reduces from six to two the number of workers required to move a patient from one bed to another. Back, shoulder, arm and wrist injuries were common from nurses and others who move patients.

With a simple hand crank, it slides underneath a patient and then moves the patient from their bed to the lift chair. Then the nurse can stand the patient up or move them to another bed.

“We used to have recliner chairs that broke down all of the time,” recalled Terri Smith, an RN in the Neurology Department. “I really love that (new) chair. It makes it so much easier.”

Vince Piscopo