Webinar series
Emergency service responders and healthcare workers are often faced with physically demanding tasks that include lifting and moving people and/or objects in unpredictable, unmodifiable settings; this makes training a critical component of a comprehensive injury prevention strategy. The excessive physical effort, repetitive movements, and awkward postures these workers encounter daily are a likely cause of the majority of their injuries.
This free webinar seriesÌýwill beginÌýwith a webinar summarizing our current understanding of the effectiveness of manual handling training for injury prevention and management; the best available research will also be used to make general recommendations for training program development, implementation and evaluation. This introductory webinar will be followed by webinars that offer more specific summaries and recommendations for three different sectors: Firefighters,ÌýParamedics,Ìýand Healthcare workers.Ìý
In this webinar
Research and experience haveÌýtaught us that worker training is important for injury preventionÌýand ‘fitting the work to the worker,’ perhaps even more critical for tasks requiring manual handling. This webinar will highlight the foundational elements of the CRE-MSD – PSHSA Client/Patient Handling Community of Practice work on the critical features of Mobility and Handling Training for Personal Support Workers that reinforces this premise. A physical readiness assessment used by a large Ontario home healthcare provider will be shared, along with recent progress in quantifying physical demands during ongoing work, and efforts to use posture monitoring and biofeedback to train safer movement patterns during client/patient handling training.
About the presenters
Dr. Catherine BrookmanÌýis the Associate Director of Knowledge Transfer and Exchange for CRE-MSD and one of the leads of the CRE-MSD seed grantÌýThe Development of a PSW Training Evaluation Framework and Sit-to-Stand Training.ÌýShe is a healthcare consultant and a dynamic authority on Ontario’s Personal Support Worker (PSW) occupation. She has extensive expertise in gerontology, health and safety and accreditation, specializing in the development and evaluation of programs and services for seniors.ÌýCatherine holds Doctorate, Masters, and Bachelor of Science degreesÌýfrom theÌýUniversity of Toronto.
Dr. Emily KingÌýis theÌýManager, Research Operations at VHA Home HealthCare and a past CIHR-funded postdoctoral fellow at the University of À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ. Her goal is to improve safety and independence in home care. Her work focuses on quantifying the physical demands of home care work, and on understanding and addressing the physical, social and organizational factors that have the greatest influence on home care workers’ risk of injury. She holds multiple patents and has contributed to the development of assistive technologies for toileting, mobility and safe patient lifting. Emily holds a BASc in Mechanical Engineering, University of À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ, a MASc in Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, and a PhD in Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto. Emily is one of the leads of the CRE-MSD seed grantÌýThe Development of a PSW Training Evaluation Framework and Sit-to-Stand Training.
Dr. Mike Holmes is an Associate Professor in the Department of Kinesiology at Brock University where he holds a Canada Research Chair in Neuromuscular Mechanics and Ergonomics. The overall goal of Dr. Holmes’ research program is to exploit an interdisciplinary approach that combines techniques from neurophysiology and biomechanics to identify mechanisms of fatigue, injury and pain. By improving our understanding of injury development and progression, the Holmes Lab aims to optimize human performance at work and sport by developing recommendations to minimize the risk of injury, maximize performance and inform safe work practices.
Webinar resources
Other resources
To complement this webinar series, CRE-MSD has developed three infographic/poster resourcesÌýon body positioning for the knee, low back, and shoulder for reducing MSD injury risk when performing non-modifiable tasks. These resources are now available as part of theÌýÌýand can be found in the Resource Library, under the Hazard Control category.
CRE-MSD researchers have also developed a position paper sumarizing current best evidence on this topic:ÌýImproving Workplace Manual Handling Training Programs.
For assistance, please contact BetinaÌýButler atÌýbbutler@uwaterloo.ca.
Disclaimer:ÌýCRE-MSDÌýreceives funding through a grant provided by the Ontario Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development. The views expressed are those of the presentersÌýand do not necessarily reflectÌýthose of the Centre nor of the Province of Ontario.