Senate Subcommittee Hearing Focuses on Safe Patient Handling and Lifting Standards

Nurse helping lift a patient out of a chairOn Tuesday, the Senate Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety held a hearing to assess the need for safe patient handling and lifting standards. A number of panel members testified that health care workers experience a relatively excessive rate of musculoskeletal injuries due to manual patient handling and called for legislation and regulation to provide a “floor” for minimally acceptable working conditions. Legislation has already been introduced in both congressional chambers to accomplish this end. The Nurse and Health Care Worker Protection Act (S. 1788, H.R. 2381) was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) in October 2009, and in the House of Representatives by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) last May.  Continue reading this entry at Littler’s Healthcare Employment Counsel blog.

Photo credit:  AlexRaths

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