Measuring the physical demands of work in hospital settings: Design and implementation of an ergonomics assessment

Background: Assessing the physical demands of the heterogeneous jobs in hospitals requires appropriate and validated assessment methodologies. Methods: As part of an integrated assessment, we adapted Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA), using it in a work sampling mode facilitated by a hand-held personal digital assistant, expanding it with selected items from the UC Computer Use Checklist, and developed a scoring algorithm for ergonomics risk factors for the upper (UB) and lower body (LB). Results: The inter-rater reliability kappa was 0.54 for UB and 0.66 for LB. The scoring algorithm demonstrated significant variation (ANOVA p < 0.05 ) by occupation in anticipated directions (administrators ranked lowest; support staff ranked highest on both scores). A supplemental self-assessment measure of spinal loading correlated with high strain LB scores ( r = 0.30 ; p < 0.001 ). Conclusion: We developed and validated a scoring algorithm incorporating a revised REBA schema adding computer use items, appropriate for ergonomics assessment across a range of hospital jobs.