Speaking up to prevent workplace injuries

I have worked in hospital pharmacy my whole career which spans well over 20 years. Early on in my profession, I developed a passion for ergonomics and safe handling of hazardous drugs. Initially I was hired to work in our local hospital pharmacy. I was excited by all the new prospects the job presented. As I worked through some of the duties, I started to wonder how all this repetitive work affected us. As the pharmacy became more automated to streamline efficiencies, we were doing more computer work, using machines to prepackage medication, separating the individual medications that the packaging machine spit out at record speed, and loading machines to ensure that nursing had the right dose at the right time. Read: Holiday diversity Did you ever wonder why your wrist, hands and elbows were sore after a shift? A position opened in sterile compounding, I applied and was the successful candidate. This opened a whole new world for me, and I fell in love with it! We had a remarkably busy Central Intravenous Additive Program, in which we supplied the hospital with a variety of IV products. These included antibiotics, pain medications and total parenteral nutrition products, better known as TPN. The TPNs had a variety of other injectable medications that required a technician to inject into the bags. In an average shift we were preparing up to 20 of these large, one-litre bags—pulling and pushing, pulling and pushing, using a variety of large volume syringes. This quickly brought on some new and unexpected challenges that I thought would never happen to me. The constant pulling and pushing of large volumes began to take a toll on my elbow. It started out as a slight ache but some rest when I went home seemed to make it feel better. (But that should have been my first clue!) Instead of taking care of it properly, I just continued to endure the slight ache until it turned into an acute pain and then progressed to swelling. My elbow was starting to look like a little baseball! Read: OCP provides practice tool to promote safe opioid dispensing I decided to make the stressful journey to speak to my manager and occupational health department about these issues. The diagnosis was tendinitis of the elbow. It was a repetitive strain injury also known as an RSI. I felt so guilty that I had failed! (Is is funny how we self-blame!) I was put on modified duties and had physio three times per week. The healing process took months, but in that time, I learned that to ward off injury, the best course of action was more education on RSI, and adequate stretching and warming up of my hands and elbows. Fast-forward a couple of years and our oncology pharmacy dept was looking for a sterile compounding technician. I felt much better prepared to tackle it this round! I have been in sterile compounding for more than 20 years. The takeaway message remains the same: educate yourself. Knowledge is power! If your organization has an Occupational Health department, use their services. Ask questions. Do they offer in-house services on how to prevent repetitive strain injuries? What exercises do they recommend? Make time before your shift to warm up those hand and wrists before starting your day. If an injury occurs, report it right away. After all, a few simple stretches could save your job! My pharmacy career began when pharmacy technicians did not have a designation and our voices were barely heard. Today we are self-advocates and strong in number—let your voice be heard! Judy Turner has been a pharmacy technician for 29 years. She currently works part-time at the Peterborough Regional Health Centre in Cancer Care Pharmacy. Read: When the pharmacy is hazardous to your health

Speaking up to prevent workplace injuries

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