Abstract
Article: Radiologic and Sonography Professionals’ Ergonomics: An Occupational Therapy Intervention for Preventing Work Injuries
Author: Thomas F. Fisher, PhD, OTR, CCM, FAOTA
Category: Focusing on the Issues
Credit: 1.0 SDMS CME Credit
Objectives: After studying the article entitled “Radiologic and Sonography Professionals’ Ergonomics: An Occupational Therapy Intervention for Preventing Work Injuries,” you will be able to:
Explain the most common mechanisms of work-related injuries
Determine the need for regular training sessions on injury prevention
Determine the overall cost of work-related injuries
In the reported study, after multitutorial training, the physical risk factor for work-related musculoskeletal disorders identified by the greatest percentage of participants was
Repetitiveness Improper body mechanics Pace of work Noncompliant patients
Research has shown that a significant risk for developing hand and/or wrist injuries is a probe thumb-finger pinch grip force greater than
0.9 kg 4.0 kg 4.5 kg 27.6 kg
The greatest increase in posttest versus pretest responses for the question “What injuries are you aware of?” occurred for
Back injury Shoulder injury Wrist injury Repetitive strain injury
In a study by Roll et al, it was reported that the Rapid Upper Limb Assessment score from the beginning to the end of the day increased by a factor of nearly
2 3 4 5
Motion studies on sonographers have shown that in many instances, the percentage of time their arm is abducted greater than 30 degrees is
68% 63% 37% 22%
Research studies have recommended that radiologic professionals undergo training or participate in an educational workshop on safe scanning techniques at least
Every three months Every six months Every year Every two years
Of all those studied by Roll et al, the two examinations that had the highest Rapid Upper Limb Assessment scores were
Upper extremity venous and transabdominal obstetric examinations Transvaginal pelvic and transabdominal obstetric examinations Transvaginal pelvic and lower extremity venous examinations Transvaginal pelvic and upper extremity venous examinations
After viewing the online ergonomics tutorial used for this study, what percentage of radiologic professionals said they changed their work practices?
37.5% 60.0% 62.5% 81.2%
A serious work-related musculoskeletal injury to a single sonographer can have an overall cost over a year’s time of more than
$100,000 $250,000 $400,000 $500,000
According to the study reported by Gibbs and Edwards, the most important finding of the data was that
Work-related musculoskeletal disorders were unavoidable Work-related musculoskeletal disorders only occur in very busy departments Sonographers should be responsible for continuous awareness of their scanning technique Scans should be done as fast as possible to avoid work-related musculoskeletal disorders
Footnotes