Manual Handling Essentials

Overview

This eHealth course is designed to provide organisations/workers with the opportunity to complete an online course about manual handling essential principles. Manual handling, also known as manual tasks, means more than just lifting or carrying something. The term ‘manual tasks’ is used to describe a range of activities including lifting, lowering, pushing, pulling, carrying, moving, holding or restraining an object, animal or person. This means that all of your employees are exposed to and are at risk of manual handling injuries. Our course is designed to teach workers safe manual handling techniques and provide them with the background knowledge about why safe manual handling is essential. We provide examples of poor manual handling techniques and common injuries resulting from poor manual handling. The course covers a basic introduction to anatomy and involved structures so workers are able to understand the importance of safe manual handling techniques. These eHealth courses are informative and delivered in an entertaining format with various videos and special effects to engage the participant while completing the online course. The course should take approximately 45 to 60 minutes to complete and may be completed in more than one session.

Outline

This course covers the following topics:

• Rights and Responsibilities
• Causation/Relationship of Injury
• Inflammation & Healing Processes
• What is a Manual Task
• Protecting your lower back
• The role our trunk or abdominal muscles play in protecting our lower back
• Practical and adaptable lifting techniques
• Preventing shoulder injuries
• Preventing overuse injuries to the elbows, wrists and hands
• Preventing foot and calf pain and injury
• General prevention strategies

Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:

• Identify the link between the way in which they perform their daily working tasks and the physical effect it will have on their body.
• Identify the most appropriate movement patterns for bending, leaning and reaching tasks.
• Understand the relationship between centre of gravity and base of support and how this effects the way force is transferred through our body.
• Identify which bending, lifting and reaching movement patterns are likely to have detrimental effects on the lumbar spine or lower back structures.
• Understanding the role our core trunk muscles in protecting and supporting our spine.
• Identify specific techniques for use in tasks associated with the Aged and Community Care Service Industry.