Nurses and other caregivers, as well as health care employers and safety, health, and ergonomics professionals can share and gain knowledge about current evidence-based practices in health care ergonomics - including safe patient handling – at the third National HealthCare Ergonomics Conference March 9-12, 2009, at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland.
According to the conference website, the educational sessions are applicable to any health care environment, including hospitals, long-term care, rehabilitation, outpatient clinics, ambulatory surgical centers, home care, mental health facilities, and health care educational institutions. Conference topics include:
- Developing sustainable ergonomics and safe patient/resident handling programs
- Building the business case for ergonomics and safe patient/resident handling programs
- Safe patient handling equipment design and selection
- Care of bariatric patients
- Washington's safe patient handling law (legislative update)
- Oregon's safe patient/resident handling "facility of choice" program
- Ergonomics design for retrofit or new health care construction
- Ergonomics for computer and e-charting workstations, environmental services and housekeeping, rehabilitation, therapy, and diagnostic services
The conference is cosponsored by the Oregon Coalition for HealthCare Ergonomics (of which SAIF is a founding member), the University of Washington Northwest Center for Occupational Health and Safety, and the Washington Safe Patient Handling Steering Committee.
It is in partnership with the Oregon Governor's Occupational Safety & Health Conference (GOSH) which is the largest safety and health conference in the Pacific Northwest and one of the largest in the United States.
For more information and to register for this conference, go to the Healthcare Ergonomics Conference link of Oregon Governor's Occupational Safety and Health website.