Manual Handling

After handwashing we were shown two ways to move a patient in bed and out of bed. The first was the slide sheet. I couldn't find a video showing the whole slide sheet process but basically it requires two nurses to do it and it's function is to move the patient up in bed when they've slid down too far, without using your back muscles.

This family's solution was inventing their own machine one carer could use at home to move their son up in bed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKSGXMeNl6U&feature=related

After that we were shown how to move a patient out of bed using a lifting machine with a body sling.


These machines require two nurses and can lift patients who weight up to 175kg. There are special machine for extremely large patients:




This is good representation of what we watched.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXzSG9rCLHw&feature=related

We are allowed to and expected to book the clinical learning unit to practice these skills in our own time.