Characterizing Physical Strain in Non-Routinized Clinical Work Through Observation: An Example of Oral Healthcare Providers

Abstract

The Revised Strain Index (RSI), despite its prevalence in ergonomics field practice, is designed to assess jobs with cyclic and predictable physical and behavioral patterns. The quantification of exertion force, posture, and work task duration is substantially more challenging for non-routinized work in clinical and hospital environments. Using dental hygiene work as an exemplar, we proposed a consolidated method to characterize physical exertion for non-routinized work. We conducted the RSI adaptation process in two phases. In phase one, we characterized exertion in non-routinized work and identified representative intensity and posture patterns. In phase two, we validated the consolidated method using a small subset of dental hygiene video recordings and compared the results to the conventional sampling method.

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