Track: Human Factors and Ergonomics

Abstract

The work-related musculoskeletal disorders have always been a significant health problem for nurses, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. They were expected to fight on the frontlines for an extensive time and sometimes without rest. The president of FNU, Maristela Abenojar, stated that the working conditions of the nurses were no longer humane. Several nurses worked more than 12-hours shifts while taking care of as many as 20 patients, refraining from having their meals and going to the bathrooms to save PPEs. In line with this, the current study utilized regression analysis to determine the risk factors that significantly affect the WMSDs of the nurses. The survey results gathered 103 nurse respondents from different hospitals around the National Capital Region. The findings have shown that several significant risk factors were identified to influence the WMSDs substantially. Some of the risk factors mentioned and the body region that they affected were the following: Working near physical limits and working while injured affected the hip/buttocks; safety or ergonomic training experience and work duration affected the lower back; an excessive number of patients affected the neck. The study also displayed a comprehensive and detailed proposed corrective action to confront the work-related risk factors present among the nurses. Organizational intervention must be done to help the nurses reduce their WMSDs and have a healthy work environment. Finally, a deeper analysis of each task can help further improve the study results.

Keywords: Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders, Risk Factors, Nurses, COVID-19, Proposed Corrective Actions.