PHTY102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Physical Therapy, Risk Management, Personal Protective Equipment
Principles of Manual Handling and Risk Management
•Define the terms manual handling and risk management
•Identify potential risks in physiotherapy clinical practice
•Outline strategies to minimise risk in physiotherapy clinical practice
•Outline the legal requirements and responsibilities for a physiotherapist in relation to manual
handling and risk management
What is manual handling?!
Any activity required by a person to lift, lower, pull, push, carry, move hold or restrain any animate
or inanimate object.
Manual handling in physiotherapy:
•Lifting or moving equipment
•Bending to manipulate equipment
•Patient handling
Basic principles of spinal care:
•Maintain spinal curves
•Use hips and knees
•Keep load close
•Brace with abdominal muscles
‘No lift’/ safe lifting policy:
•Policy in many public institutions
•Risk management strategy applied to patient handling due to high incidence of injuries
•Legal requirement to follow this policy
•Principle is to reduce lifting where possible
•Increased use of mechanical assistive devices
•Nurses not usually responsible for physical rehabilitationtherefore tend to use mechanical assist
•Physiotherapists usually responsible for physical rehabilitation
•May not be able to adopt a ‘no lift’ or ‘minimal manual handling’ approach – therefore, adopt a
‘safe’ lift approach
•However should abide by this policy whenever possible
Risk management:
Risk- probability that (adverse) event will have an impact - function of likelihood and consequences
•Evaluating a situation and determining the level of risk present, and then
• Developing a strategy to employ to minimise or eliminate the risk(s)
•For the physiotherapist, risk management is a continuous process throughout the therapist-client
interaction (treatment session)
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