Comparative Analysis of Wheelchair Transfer Movements Between Nurse and Care Worker

It is considered that, even though it is for the same purpose, there is a difference in the methods of body position changing or wheelchair transfer between nurses and care workers. The authors had attempted in the previous study to develop a self-learning support tool for nursing students. As a part of the previous experiment, wheelchair transfer method discussed in the nursing technique textbook commonly used among nursing students was extracted. Then, this movement was filmed in order to produce an “example video”. We showed this “example video” to our test subjects consisting of care workers, and asked them to imitate the wheelchair transfer movement shown in the video. During this experiment, we received feedbacks from the test subjects that claimed; “We do not take this approach when transferring an elderly to and from a wheelchair in care work”. Even though care worker are all categorized as “care profession”, there are positions, such as Certified Care Worker and Certified Social Worker, that require national qualifications. There are also positions, commonly referred to care worker, that does not require any qualification. An unqualified care worker is required to receive the initial training seminar, and one of the professions that are qualified to become the instructor of this seminar is nurse. If there is a difference in the methodology between nurses and care workers, it means that the techniques taught by nurses were transformed through time in order to adapt to the environment of frontline care work. As movements involved in body position changing or wheelchair transfer are type of technique that is physically demanding and could potentially cause backache for both nurses and care workers, it is highly significant that the current technique is improved and becomes an easier technique for the practitioners. Therefore, in this study, we engaged veterans of both nursing and care work, measured their movement during body position changing and wheelchair transfer, and examined the characteristics of movements of each subject. In general, the location where a nurse conducts the movement in discussion is a hospital ward. On the other hand, it would normally be a facility such as a nursing home for a care worker. Between a hospital ward and a care facility, there are many differences such as the legally required size of a room or the fact that one place is for medical treatment and the other is for living, resulting in dissimilarities such as the positioning of beds. By exploring the difference in the movement of nurses and care workers, while taking these factors into consideration, it is possible that improved methods for body position changing and wheelchair transfer that are better adapted to the environment could be devised.