Question

Marianna is a support worker for Murray Hills Home and Community Care Services. Marianna has three children, who are all in school. She is married and her husband is in the armed forces, so he spends a lot of time away from home. Marianna works part-time for the personal care agency and does some private cleaning at other times.

Marianna is working in a person’s home. She is running late and needs to get the person showered and dressed before heading off to her cleaning job. The person, Alexia, is sitting in a lounge chair. When Marianna tells Alexia she is ready to shower her, Alexia asks Marianna to help her out of the chair.

Marianna knows she should not help and that Alexia’s personal care support plan directs that she should instruct Alexia about proper placement of her hands and feet, bending and so on, so she can get herself up. However, this normally takes a long time and Marianna is in a hurry. She asks Alexia if she has had help from other workers to get out of her chair. Alexia says she has.

Marianna asks Alexia if she thinks she could get out of the chair alone, but Alexia says she is too tired. Marianna doesn’t think that Alexia is very heavy so she holds her under the arms and lifts her out of the chair. Marianna feels a sharp stabbing pain in her lower back when she does the lift. The pain does not go away even when Alexia is standing unsupported.

When Marianna sees her doctor, she finds that she has done serious damage to her back and is unable to do any physical work for at least three months – probably longer. She cannot sit or stand for very long and often gets pins and needles in her legs and feet.

Question

1. What should Marianna have done when Alexia informed her she was unable to stand up out of her chair?

2. Imagine that you are Marianna’s supervisor. Write down three things you would tell her about protecting herself from a back injury when she is working.

3. ‘If there had been a hoist nearby, Marianna should have used that even if she was in a hurry.’ Consider this statement and write a paragraph discussing it.

Answer 1

1. She should have called someone to help her to make alexa out of the chair.

2. She should first of all manage her time ., so as not to be in hurry for a work

secondly, she should ask for help whenever she feels that she needs help.

proper lifting techniques should be used so as to prevent back injury like

• Make sure that feet are stable, and as close as possible to the person being lifted.
• Face the person to be lifted, slightly bend the knees and squat in preparation to lift. Hold in the abdominals and keep the back straight. This will add lifting strength and encourage additional power from legs and arms.
• Maintain a position as close to the person as possible so that excess strain is not placed on the back by leaning over.
• When turning a loved one from back to side, distribute weight equally between feet and try to avoid extended forward bending movements as much as possible.
• Point feet toward the person being lifted. If possible, place one foot in between the person's feet and one foot to the outside for optimal stability.
• Attempt to lift using a smooth, flowing motion, pushing upward with leg muscles.

3. Mariana could have used hoist for lifting the alexa as hoist  is a device used for lifting or lowering a load by means of a drum or lift-wheel around which rope or chain wraps. It may be manually operated, electrically or pneumatically driven and may use chain, fiber or wire rope as its lifting medium. So it reduces a person’s efforts to a great extent to lift a person . So if mariana would have used hoist, she may not have suffered from back injury.