Patient handling: student nurses’ views

Patient handling presents considerable challenges to those employed in health care. Despite significant emphasis on training over the past decade, evidence suggests poor compliance with recommended principles. Consensus currently promotes ergonomic approaches, yet the need to address social and behavioural factors is also emerging. Experience of teaching student nurses in this field suggested that taught techniques are not always transferred into practice yet few studies have focused on their explanations. This paper reports on a study of factors that influence patient-handling practices from the perspectives of student nurses, and discusses the implications for educational strategies in the UK. Data collection comprised of a self-report questionnaire to a purposive sample of students, followed by discussions about its findings with the 51 respondents, to clarify understanding and gain further insights. Notes of these discussions were analysed thematically and linked with the descriptive data from the questionnaire. The results indicated that most students believed that ‘safe’ patient handling is achievable, yet approximately half did not use recommended techniques despite having the requisite knowledge. Disparity was also evident regarding the impact of clinical culture, conflict between personal and patient well-being and transferability of classroom skills. The significance of clinical placement areas in influencing students’ patient-handling behaviour was revealed in both stages of data collection. The study contributes to evidence indicating poor compliance with patient-handling directives and suggests a need to address potential barriers through educational strategies.