Patients and clients for movement and handling is one of the most important activities that takes place in any given health and social care delivery setting. The general health and safety responsibility for this business is that for employees who work in this sector, it is characteristic that in the process of work, moving and handling are performed safely with equipment and loads or in relation to patients. 

Safe moving and handling prevent the staff and other people being involved in moving and handling processes from getting further injured; it also helps staff to be in containment with laws and regulation that relate to the principles of safe moving and handling in social care. Moving and handling are defined in this article along with the main procedures and principles of moving and handling, the equipment that may be used during the processes and the regulations and moving and handling risk assements that relate to social care settings. Now we will continue to explain the principles for safe moving and handling.

Moving and Handling

The moving and handling is a routine part of health and social care and it’s defined as the process of moving patients and other objects or loads. Far from being a routine task, moving and handling when done without the right precautions expose the people involved to severe and sometimes fatal risks. 

Typical moving or handling jobs include, but are not restricted to:

• Helping a person to wash or bath 
• Helping the change of a person’s location to the bathroom 
• Helping a person transfer from a lying down to a sitting and vice versa. 
• Helping a person get up, remain on or get off a seat, or to move from sitting to standing or from standing to sitting 

Curling and transferring items, apparels or laundry and cleaning products or materials 

In addition to the principles of safe moving, the moving and handling in health and social care must be done after proper training to reduce incidences of accidents among the workforce and the patients. Sometimes, to determine whether the moving and handling process can incorporate the ability of a certain individual, practical training sessions and assessments are conducted. 

Sometimes, major moving and handling tasks include the use of mechanical means of lifting so that moving is made easier and safer. Another factor of the safe moving and handling is the correct maintenance of equipment, as, when the equipment is not properly maintained, the tasks cannot be accomplished safely and, thus, the risk of injuries raises. To ensure safety and efficiency in these tasks, it’s crucial to have a thorough understanding of proper techniques and equipment handling.

They can be obtained from academic related classes and trainings that people attend as a part of their careers. To get detailed academic help in this field, the clients of best assignment help must apply for the assistance of the company’s professionals with the given type of assignment, that has to do with handling and moving procedures.

Moving and handling procedures are the techniques that will be used in the 

There are the following recommended handling practices and guidelines when moving or handling the patients. These are: 

This shouldn’t be a loose grip but a firm grip, a tight grip that secures the hold of the object. 

A handler should ensure that he has a tight hold of a load when transferring it but equally ensure that this hold is not painful for the patient. Sections of discussion that should be done before the procedure should be done to make the patient not uncomfortable and know what to say if they are. 

Position the feet correctly 

Prior to moving and handling the patient, the handler should check that the patient’s feet are correctly placed (femi, 2024) – flat on the floor approximately shoulder width apart, thereby widening their stance and balancing them during the task. Particularly, it is required to maintain a good posture during the whole time.  

When a person undergoes moving and handling operations, he has to remain standing straight so as to offer minimal pressure on the back joints a muscles hence enabling the natural S-shape curvature of the spine. This reduces any extra pressure on the muscles, joints, and bones in the back when associated with the strengthening of the abdominal muscles to offer support to the spine and it also reduces any twisting that can be hazardous on the musculoskeletal framework. 

Hold the load close 

Reducing handling distances of load means that there would not be much pressure put on the lumbar spine while handling the load through out the procedure which will ultimately mean that there will be little instances of muscular or skeletal complications. The performance of these actions should also avoid the nodding of the head or straining the neck during the procedure as this is also likely to cause an injury. 

What Kinds of Moving and handling Equipment Exits? 

It is possible to speak about the following types of moving and handling equipment intended for the needs of the care service and the tasks they perform to move their patients: 

Before the actual moving and handling of a patient, the particular type of equipment that is required to facilitate in moving and handling should be as follows; Should be selected based on the user’s preference, ease of access and the safety of the patient to be moved. Examples of different moving and handling equipment that are most commonly used include:

• Wheelchairs 
• Hoists: Formerly employed in lifting people to be moved 
• Handling Belts: To help those who can’t push themselves off the ground with their hands, or partially weight-bearing activity. 
• Walking aids 
• Slide sheets 
• Bed levers 

CONCLUSION 

Moving and handling risk assessments are implemented as ways of determining potential risks as well as how the workers might be able to handle them with the intention of avoiding undesirable impacts while carrying out the moving and handling processes. Before any moving and handling processes it is always necessary to carry out both general and individual risk assessments. 

General risk assessments assist in addressing the issue of safety and health and in delivering the best outcome for all the people (ER, 2020) involved including the employees, the care receivers, and other persons involved while dealing with general safety measures to arrive at the most secure ways of executing the process. On the other hand, Individual risk assessments are more of patient-centered and include their desires and the families in the decisions concerning the patient’s treatment and moving and handling processes. 

References

femi@caringforcare.co.uk & femi@caringforcare.co.uk. (2024, January 29). The 5 Key Principles for Safer Moving and Handling of People: A Caregiver’s Step-by-Step Guide. Caring for Care. https://caringforcare.co.uk/key-principles-of-safe-moving-and-handling/

ER (2020). How to Make Progress on Your Goals When You Feel Unmotivated? https://eazyresearch.com/blog/how-to-make-progress-on-your-goals-when-you-feel-unmotivated/ 

• Country: United Kingdom