Letters & E-mails

Practice Safe Patient Lifting
Re: "Court Rules Against OR Nurse in $1.6M Disability Discrimination Claim" (www.outpatientsurgery.net/news/2011/05). For most patient-lifting tasks, the maximum recommended weight limit is 35 lbs. We in health care like to say that we follow best practice behaviors, but we ignore the arena of safe patient handling. We have science and we have National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health standards, but healthcare employers aren't forced to provide safe lifting environments for their workers. So we see numerous injuries, increased workers' comp claims and badly needed, highly trained healthcare workers unable to do the jobs for which they've trained because they're required to perform physically impossible tasks.

Marsha Medlin, RN
Safe Lifting Solutions

Where's the Eye Protection?
Re: "Do You Remember How to Scrub (Properly)?" (Manager's Guide to Infection Control, May, page 4) I read your magazine faithfully from cover to cover, but something is troubling to me and I need to let you know. The nurse scrubbing her hands does not have eye protection in place. AORN states that eye protection should be worn. Your photographs should depict acceptable practices.

Barbara Kohley, RN, MS, CNOR
Midwest Center for Day Surgery