IT MIGHT look like a giant cigarette roller, but it鈥檚 actually a machine to help nurses and carers turn bedridden patients without damaging their backs. And it鈥檚 less scary for patients than previous lifting devices because they stay in contact with the bed while they鈥檙e being turned.
When sick people have to lie prone for long periods, they often get ulcers at pressure points. Turning the patient helps to relieve the pressure, and stimulates circulation. And in people with pneumonia, turning helps redistribute stagnant mucus in their lungs, so they breathe more easily.
But turning patients can give nurses and carers back strain. One study showed that some nurses can perform as many as 50 rolls in a single eight-hour shift.
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To reduce the burden, Arin Basmajian and her team at MIT in Boston have devised a simple portable frame that uses the sheet beneath the patient to lift and turn them. You simply slide the frame into place around the bed. Attach each side of the sheet to the rollers with Velcro strips and start winding with the electric motors built into the frame. Software controls which way the patient tilts by reeling the sheet in on one side only, and keeps the rolling motion gentle and smooth.
Using the sheet as a lifting mechanism has the advantage of not concentrating shear forces across the body, says Basmajian, as it hugs the patient鈥檚 body, distributing the lifting and turning forces.
Lifting systems have been developed in the past to help raise patients when changing sheets or transferring them to a wheelchair. But they are expensive and bulky, says Basmajian. 鈥淎nd nurses complain that the set-up time is too long and that patients feel unsafe being airborne.鈥�
Carol Bannister, an occupational health adviser to the Royal College of Nursing, says the roller frame would only work with brand new sheets. 鈥淗ospitals launder sheets at 100 掳C and people urinate on them day in day out,鈥� she says. All it would take is for one of them to tear and you鈥檝e got an accident. 鈥淚 doubt any hospital would use it,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t sounds dangerous.鈥�
But Basmajian maintains that cotton sheets are strong enough, even when they鈥檙e not new, especially since the patient always maintains some contact with the bed when being rolled. She is planning safety trials of the roller frame before it is tested in hospitals.
