As one of more than a million California residents who currently earn a living working in health care, you probably understand that experiencing job-related aches and pains is incredibly common in your line of work. At the Law Offices of Hussain & Gutierrez, we recognize that many health care-related injuries result from relocating immobile patients, and we have helped many nurses and other health care workers who experienced back and other work-related injuries pursue appropriate recourse.

According to Healthcare Business & Technology, one of the most significant threats facing today’s nurses, nursing aides and other health care workers is one that often receives little attention from employers: moving heavy patients. So many health care workers suffer serious injuries caused by moving patients, in fact, that this has become one of the most substantial health hazards faced by today’s health care workforce.

Just how widespread are back, neck and other injuries caused by moving immobile patients? When it comes to nurses, exclusively, they suffer about 35,000 back and musculoskeletal injuries each year that are bad enough to keep them out of work. The problem has become so pronounced, in fact, that modern nurses are more likely to suffer injuries than construction workers, manufacturers and anyone else in jobs that involve exclusively physical labor.

Part of the threat comes from the fact that many hospitals, and particularly, those in rural areas, fail to stock mechanical lift assistance equipment that can take much of the strain off of health care workers. In other cases, hospitals and similar medical environments fail to adequately train their workers with regard to proper lifting techniques, even though utilizing them can lessen, though not eliminate, the risk of a lifting-related injury. You can learn more about workplace injuries on our webpage.