Lessons · Nursing · a lift transfer, in order
A lift transfer, in the order that keeps everyone upright
Explain the move, lock the wheels, position the sling under the patient, attach every strap and check each one, raise just clear of the surface and stop, move, lower, then remove the sling.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
What it is for
Mechanical lifts exist because backs get injured lifting people, and the injuries that still happen are nearly all an unlocked wheel or a strap nobody checked. The pause after the first few centimetres is the step that finds the loose one while the patient is still over the bed.
How to think about it
Say the steps as a sequence and do not let an interruption move you down the list. Brakes before anything, sling placed without dragging the skin, every attachment checked by hand and by eye, a short lift and a stop, then the move, then down, then the sling out. Two people whenever the lift or the unit says two.
Worked example
1. Explain the move to the patientA person who knows what is about to happen does not grab the rail halfway.
2. Lock the wheels on the bed and the liftBrakes first. A chair that rolls away mid-transfer is the classic fall.
3. Position the sling under the patientRolled in, not dragged, so the skin is not sheared.
4. Attach every strap and check each oneBy hand and by eye. Each loop, each hook.
5. Raise until just clear of the bed and stopThe check that finds a loose strap while the patient is still over the bed.
6. Move, lower, and remove the slingSlowly, and the sling comes out so nobody sits on a bunched strap.
Your turn
Write what is done to the wheels before the sling goes anywhere.
2. the wheels on the bed and the lift
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Raising the patient straight up to the height of the move. Stopping a few centimetres up is what shows a strap that is not seated, and a strap that lets go at full height is a fall from full height.