Journal of Physiotherapy in Work and Health

A Literature Review on Effects of Ergonomic Hazards on the Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders in Office Workers

Ionela Marinau — 2023-10-16

Background and Aims: Work-related musculoskeletal disorders have a significant negative impact on the overall health and well-being of office workers. This systematic review aimed to assess the effects of inappropriate postures or ergonomic hazards on WRMSDs in office workers.

Methods: The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were followed to conduct and report the systematic review's findings. The literature search across three databases, namely CINAHL Ultimate, AMED, and MEDLINE, was performed to include studies published between 2000 and 2023.

Results: The review included 7 studies investigating the effects of ergonomic hazards or poor postures on WRMSDs in office workers. Four studies were categorised as high quality (> 85% criteria met), while three studies were rated as moderate or acceptable quality (< 85% criteria met). All of the selected studies reported a statistically significant relationship between poor postures and WRMSDs in the sample population of office workers.

Discussion: There was some consistency in the results of the selected studies, suggesting that poor postures can lead to musculoskeletal pain in the upper and lower back, neck, and upper extremities in office workers working on computers. The current research is, however, limited and does not explore the effects of poor postures on functional limitations, i.e., range of motion.

What are the Interventions Affecting Manual Handling Injuries in Frontline Pre-hospital Clinicians?

Gruia Dimcea — 2023-10-16

Background and purpose: A literature review to investigate the effects of manual handling interventions and equipment on musculoskeletal (MSK) injuries and disorders in pre-hospital clinicians.

Methods: The search included articles published in CINAHL Plus, AMED, MEDLINE, Academic Search Complete, PubMED, Scopus, Science Direct, Web of Science, PEDro, Cochrane and PsycINFO. There was no date limit set for the search, and a grey literature search was also conducted.

Results: The review included 10 studies that investigated a variety of manual handling equipment: powered loading stretchers, lifting straps, slip preventers and binder-lift attachments. No interventions such as manual handling, strength or ergonomic training were found. Despite the varied quality of studies, all were included due to the lack of research available on this topic and the original topic of this review.

Discussion: Overall, powered stretchers and loading systems were directly correlated to lower MSK injuries, with the other pieces of equipment such as lifting straps being related to a lower risk of MSK injury. The poor ergonomics of ambulance design and equipment placement were also linked to a higher risk of MSK injury. Current research is severely limited in this area and future studies should include multi-variate interventions to modulate MSK injuries and the risk thereof in this high-risk group of clinicians.

Exploring how changes to education during the covid-19 pandemic affected newly qualified physiotherapists in preparation and work as a Band 5 physiotherapist (Qualitative Phase)

Bethan Turner — 2023-10-15

Background:
Whilst there is lots of research investigating how COVID-19 has affected physiotherapy students whilst studying, there is currently no research into the impact that this may have had as this group transitioned to their newly qualified role. Previous studies explore changes to education including online learning, practical and placement disruptions.
This study aimed to explore if the changes in education faced by physiotherapy students during the pandemic affected their preparedness as they became newly qualified Band 5s.
Methods:
A concurrent triangulation mixed methods design has been chosen to address this research question. An online questionnaire formed the quantitative data and a focus group formed the qualitative data. This article focuses only on qualitative data analysis. The focus groups were audio recorded and a direct transcript was produced online, second checked by the researcher to ensure it was verbatim. Thematic analysis was used to identify, analyse and report themes within the data.
Results:
Four themes were identified:
Challenges of organisational dynamics and communication: This encompassed emotions felt by the participants during their time at university throughout the pandemic.
The transition to a newly qualified role: Participants did not believe this to have been affected by the pandemic. This was attributed to a good variety of clinical experiences as opposed to their peers who had non-clinical experiences.
Acceptance of their novice status as a newly qualified physiotherapist: Participants acknowledged they needed help initially which they put down to lack of experience rather than studying through COVID-19.
Concern for future placements: Participants fear for the next cohort of Band 5 physiotherapists as they have had less clinical experience due to placement shortages due to COVID-19. They believe this is having a detrimental effect on their clinical and communication skills.
Conclusion
Newly-qualified Band 5 physiotherapists who studied during the COVID-19 pandemic perceived their preparedness for the role was attributed to the number of clinical placements obtained as students. Further research should concentrate on specific skills, (e.g., bedside manner), that are difficult for students to acquire during non-clinical placements to allow for adequate support and mentoring to ensure competence upon graduation and beyond.

Exploring how changes to education during the covid-19 pandemic affected newly qualified physiotherapists in preparation and work as a Band 5 physiotherapist (Quantitative Phase)

Isobel Bassett — 2023-10-15

Traditionally, the UK physiotherapy curriculum is delivered by campus learning model and clinical placements (Chesterton et al, 2022). By March 2020, the covid-19 pandemic was declared a World Pandemic (Ayenigbara et al, 2020) forcing a rapid shift to full time online learning (Papapanou et al, 2021). Skamagki et al (2022) have highlighted the importance of incorporating quantitative and qualitative data within physiotherapy research, which is why a concurrent mixed methods design was selected. The pragmatic reasoning being qualitative and quantitative data can be collected at the same time, due to time constraints by the researchers this method was the most suitable for the study. A mixed method study allows the integration of both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection and analysis for one single study (Creswell, 1999). The aim of the study was to investigate how the changes in education due to the covid-19 pandemic affect the preparedness of physiotherapy students becoming Band 5 physiotherapists. The inclusion criteria included BSc students who commenced training in 2019 and MSc students commencing training in 2020. The questionnaire intended to investigate the preparedness of physiotherapy students who had undergone educational changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The study included five key areas of investigation: Clinical Practice Skills, Communication, Teaching and Learning, Understanding the Work Environment and Team Working. A Chi-square goodness of fit test was selected to carry out statistical analysis in SPSS. 60% of physiotherapy students agreed to be prepared for making clinical decisions based on evidence gathered after receiving online learning, with a p-value of 0.01 providing a significant result. The results from the five categories found that physiotherapy students were prepared for their role as Band 5 physiotherapists. Integration of the quantitative and qualitative data found strong associations between the questionnaire and the focus group. Online learning was an effective method in preparing physiotherapy students for becoming Band 5 physiotherapists and would be beneficial to be used within physiotherapy education in a hybrid format.