The Many Types Of Hospital Workers Who Suffer Back Injuries

Any worker across any industry can suffer an injury on the job, and hospital workers are no exception. In fact, hospital workers often suffer back injuries due to the nature of their jobs. While some back injuries are minor strains, many hospital workers sustain disabling back injuries.

One reason hospital workers and nursing home workers, especially nurses assistants, suffer back injuries is caused from manually lifting of patients. Unfortunately, hospitals and nursing homes don’t have enough mechanized patient lifting devices, which cause hospital workers and nursing home workers to manually lift patients. Although nurses assistants end up with the most severe back injuries, other hospital workers and nursing home workers suffer back injuries as well.

Some of the Different Types of Hospital and Nursing Home Workers Who Suffer from Back Injuries include:

• Registered nurses
• Nursing assistants
• Orderlies
• Patient attendants
• Radiology technicians
• Physical therapists
• Janitors
• Laundry operators

Healthcare workers are constantly in the top occupations that suffer severe back injuries on the job. According to the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), there are over 35,000 back and other injuries annually among nursing employees that cause them to miss work.

Many nurses and nurses assistants don’t realize they will become a statistic. They are just doing their job and moving patients or helping them up when they have fallen on the floor. Sometimes, a patient can be heavy and there aren’t enough people to help lift the patient. When this happens, a nurse might hear a pop and suddenly feel pain in his or her back. As a result, he or she could have damaged a disc in his or her back.

Because handling patients without the proper equipment can cause back and other musculoskeletal injuries, hospital workers and nursing home workers are more likely to suffer back injuries than other workers because they work with patients every day. In fact, BLS data shows that nursing assistants suffer these types of injuries more than any other occupation.

If you have suffered a back injury, it is important that you speak with a Florida workers’ compensation attorney. Contact the Law Offices of David Benenfeld for a free consultation and find out your rights.