Balancing growing patient volumes while dealing with staffing shortages, emergency department staff provide nearly half of all medical care in the U.S.1 for patients with varying medical conditions and levels of acuity, mobility and cognition,2 putting them at high risk for patient-handling injuries.
However, as a nontraditional care environment,3 the ED lacks standardized safe patient handling and mobility training and equipment appropriate for its unique needs.
Nurses who stopped by our booth during the Emergency Nurses Association 2022 Emergency Nursing conference expressed a desire to protect their bodies from injury. They identified PATRAN® slide sheets as an SPHM tool they could “grab and go” to help protect their ED staff and patients from injuries when performing a variety of SPHM tasks, including lateral transfer, vehicle extraction and fall recovery.
PATRAN slide sheets help with more than 25 different SPHM tasks and, while plenty of ED nurses use our 72x36-inch PATRAN®pro style, a growing number request the PATRANbari® style at 78x45 inches because you never know who is coming through the door next.
PATRAN slide sheets can help improve procedural problems, such as bed turnover and patient flow. Two caregivers from a California hospital talked about the need to safely move postmortem patients into body bags – especially on night shift – to make the space available for the next patient waiting to be seen. PATRAN slide sheets retain their slip at cold temperatures for postmortem care.
With the ED and radiology so closely aligned, PATRAN slide sheets, which are radiolucent and MR-safe, can be an interdepartmental SPHM tool. Performing imaging in the ED? PATRAN slide sheets make it easier to insert and reposition portable X-ray cassettes.
References
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Marcozzi D, Carr B, Liferidge A, Baehr N, Browne B. Trends in the Contribution of Emergency Departments to the Provision of Hospital-Associated Health Care in the USA. Int J Health Serv. 2018;48:267-288. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0020731417734498 (Accessed Oct. 19, 2022.)
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Van Dusen K. Top 5 Things Emergency Nurses Want You to Know. American Association of Critical-Care Nurses blog. 2022. https://www.aacn.org/blog/top-5-things-emergency-nurses-want-you-to-know (Accessed Oct. 19, 2022.)
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Havey R, Aebersold C, Terrasi J. "Add It to the Parking Lot": Safe Patient Handling and Mobility in the Emergency Department. Crit Care Nurs Q. 2018;41:302-311. https://journals.lww.com/ccnq/Abstract/2018/07000/_Add_It_to_the_Parking_Lot___Safe_Patient_Handling.10.aspx (Accessed Oct. 19, 2022.)
