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September 22, 2025
for clinicians
Prioritizing nurse safety is not just a matter of workplace well-being, it is essential to maintaining high standards of patient care and a resilient healthcare workforce.
While the concept of ergonomics has been around as long as humans have, the field of ergonomics started to grow after World War II, broadening our understanding of efficiency, production, and worker safety. While products like desk chairs and computer monitors often come to mind when we think of ergonomics, the application of ergonomics in nursing is a bit wider, encompassing how job tasks, equipment, and daily routines can be optimized to support nurse and caregiver safety.
Nurses are highly susceptible to injury on the job - according to OSHA, in 2019, hospitals in the US reported 221,400 work-related injuries and illnesses, a rate of 5.5 per every 100 full-time employees. Patient handling, repetitive movements, and fatigue, amongst other issues, contribute to this alarmingly high injury rate.
The health of nurses and caregivers is directly correlated to the care they are able to give patients. When nurses experience injuries, whether from lifting patients, repetitive motions, or poor workplace ergonomics, it not only impacts their personal health but also compromises patient safety and outcomes. Injuries can lead to extended time off, increased stress on remaining staff, and in severe cases, may force skilled professionals to leave the profession entirely. Prioritizing nurse safety is not just a matter of workplace well-being, it is essential to maintaining high standards of patient care and a resilient healthcare workforce.
Here are a few common issues stemming from ergonomics in nursing and ways they can be addressed:
Lifting, transferring, and repositioning patients are some of the most physically demanding tasks in nursing. Even the strongest caregivers aren’t immune to the dangers that improper body mechanics, sudden patient movements, or low staffing can cause when transferring patients. While implementing and coaching on proper body mechanics can be helpful, solutions that involve zero lift or force from nurses are the most effective, such as the SimPull, a fully automated patient transfer device that requires just two clinicians to complete lateral transfers, boosting, and supine to sitting transfers.
According to AON, patient transfer-related injuries cause 25% of all workers’ compensation claims.
Proper workstation design is essential for reducing strain and fatigue among nurses. Non-adjustable desks, poorly positioned monitors, and low-quality computer mouses can lead to neck, shoulder, wrist, and back discomfort, especially during long shifts of charting and administrative work. Ergonomically designed workstations, with adjustable chairs, desks, and monitor heights, help promote neutral posture, improve comfort, and enhance efficiency, ultimately supporting both staff well-being and patient care.
Nursing involves many repeated motions during a shift, such as bending, reaching, lifting, typing, and pushing equipment. Over time, these repetitive movements can lead to musculoskeletal strain, tendonitis, and joint discomfort. Common strategies to combat these issues include teaching proper body mechanics, implementing frequent microbreaks to stretch hands, wrists, shoulders and back, and alternating responsibility throughout a shift to reduce strain on the same muscle groups repeatedly.
Nurses spend extended periods of their shifts on foot, walking between patient rooms, stations, and supply areas. Extended periods of standing and walking can be hard on the body, and lead to joint discomfort, leg, foot, and lower back fatigue, and varicose veins. Strategies like using compression socks, high-quality footwear, taking regular microbreaks, and alternating between sitting and standing when possible can help reduce strain.
OSHA’s definition of ergonomics, “fitting a job to a person,” speaks to how work-related injuries can be minimized when we reimagine tasks with health and safety at the center. As a healthcare company, we feel a great responsibility to create solutions that prioritize ergonomics in nursing, safeguarding the future of healthcare while creating a safer work environment for nurses.
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