Analysis and risk assessment of work-related MSDs in nurses and nurse assistants

This work aims to present a risk analysis for musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) for the activities of nurses and nurse assistants of a health unit in physical medicine and rehabilitation. A self-reporting questionnaire adapted from previous research, was administered to 9 nurses and 27 nurse assistants. Others instruments, such as MAPO index e REBA were applied. The results show that the prevalence of complaints and symptoms of MSDs is high in both the professional classes (91.6%). The high levels of complaints are anatomically distributed: upper (58.3%) and lower back (66.7%), shoulders (44.4%) and wrist(s)/hand (47.2%). The MAPO index, whose value score obtained was 4.76, indicates that the risk is moderate, meaning that one should consider an intervention in the medium and long term. The results of REBA score, derived from the analysis of different activities, are mostly classified in the high level of risk. Taking into account the risk analysis performed, several safety measures for the prevention of occupational risks were proposed such as construction/engineering measures, organizational measures and personal protective equipment. The results of this study identified and analyzed the existence of medium to high risk levels in the work context, requiring an intervention program in the short/medium term to prevent the occurrence of work related MSDs. Such program should respect the hierarchy measures proposed by international and national guidelines to mitigating risk.