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Back injuries can occur quite easily and can be serious. The likelihood of an injury will depend on a number of things, including how long we have been seated, the position we take when assisting a passenger, whether our muscles are warmed and stretched, even the weather can be a factor.
To avoid injury it is important to use our body ergonomically, using our knees and large muscles when we lift and carry.
Being aware of how injuries can occur, can reduce the chance of that injury. When transporting passengers, stooping, twisting, moving even turning to look over your shoulder when pulling out in traffic could potentially cause injury. These actions are part of every day life when transporting passengers, so it is important to be conscious of what we are doing, how we are doing it and taking time to prepare and consider the safest and best way to do it. This is where the ergonomics come in.
It is likely that you will at sometime, need to handle wheelchairs, these are heavy, bulky and an awkward shape, there may be sharp edges, before you handle the chair you need to ask yourself, "can I avoid lifting it?" In most cases you can't so you need to assess:
Removing any attachments that can be removed first, makes the chair easier to fold and ensuring that the chair is fully folded, makes it lighter and easier to handle, this also reduces the likelihood of banging the chair against anything, which could give you a jolt which could potentially injure you.
When the item you are lifting has been assessed and you have made it as safe as possible to lift, you need to make sure you lift it as safely as possible using your big muscles to reduce the risk of injury to your back. This is done by:
It is important to lift while looking ahead to keep your back straight and not twist while lifting. When you twist it puts pressure on the vertebrae and muscles and ligaments, increasing the potential for back injuries, so make sure that you use your knees to lift and always keep your head and back straight and move straight when lifting or handling an object or assisting a passenger.
When you are helping a passenger to get in and out of a vehicle, you are offering a supporting role where you don't tend to actually lift them. You need to make sure that you are aware of what you are doing and where you are, it is likely that you will be concentrating on your passenger, so you need to make sure that you don't slip off curb or miss a step and risk falling and injuring yourself and the individual you are assisting.
Maintain a high level of awareness of your surroundings, make sure it is safe for you to get out of your car, when you come around the vehicle to help your passenger, make sure there are no obstacles or holes.
It is important to make sure that you are ready to support the person before you ask "can I help you" be ready to take the weight they will put on you, if you are not it could cause you to twist or pull you down, which could result in injury to you and your passenger.
When you are supporting a passenger to and from your vehicle to their home, make sure that you keep your body straight and upright, keep looking ahead to make sure that you don't miss any steps or obstacles.
If you are supporting someone and for example, their legs give way and they drop, you should not try to catch them, the weight of someone falling may well pull you down with them, causing you injury and potentially injuring the individual you are assisting.
The safest way to deal with this situation is to a try to support them as they go down, to reduce the speed and impact of the fall by lowering them to the ground. Taking care in particular to protect their head. This will help to reduce the injury to the individual while ensuring that you don't end up injuring yourself.
When they are on the ground, you can take care of them and call the emergency services if necessary.
