ABSTRACT
Although health care workers have widely reported that injuries to the shoulder and neck have prevented them from doing their work and caused them to leave their job, by far, the most common occupational injuries in the health care industry involve back disorders [4]. Nurses working in the private sector had 11,800 MSDs reported in 2001, with the majority (nearly 9,000) of the reported injuries to the back, and more than a third (36%) of the injuries resulting in lost time from work were reported to be back injuries. Another study revealed that 12% of nurses planning to leave the profession indicated back injuries were either a main or contributing factor [5].
