Common Caregiver Injuries can be Prevented with Proper Training

Protecting and ensuring the safety of elders is of prime importance for a home caregiver. However, many don’t stop to think about protecting themselves from injury. By protecting the caregiver, we also provide a safe and secure environment for such care.

A solution to lessening caregiver injury rates while also improving worker preservation could be as simple as improving training for workers, researchers say. Instruction should focus not only on physical lifting and transporting methods, but also on strategies for dealing with erratic or aggressive residents, according to a team of investigators from Penn State University.

“In our research, we saw a cascading effect,” Deirdre McCaughey, assistant professor of health policy and administration at Penn State, said. “Employees who had no training or did not believe their training prepared them well had three times more injuries. Those employees were also much less likely than non-injured employees to recommend their organization as a place at which to work or seek services.”

The study examined home health aids’ work with long-term care residents and relied on data analysis from the federally funded 2007 national Home health Aide Survey-Researchers reported on findings at the 2010 Academy of Management Annual Meeting in Montreal. They are expanding their research to examine aides’ roles and viewpoints. Operators who invest in “soft” resources, such as training, can realize benefits, McCaughey said. Employees who were trained had lower injury rates and lower turnover. Below are some of the most common injuries that occur to a caregiver, these injuries or contagious illnesses must be properly monitored and prevented.

Common Caregiver Injuries

One of the most common injuries experienced by a caregiver is back injuries. Other dangers include contact to needle sticks when caring for someone with diabetes or someone who needs managed injections, as well as blood-borne pathogens that may be controlled in saliva, urine, and blood. In addition, contact to infectious illnesses or diseases may also occur. Still, by far, the most common injuries among caregivers are those that involve the back, neck and shoulder joints.