With the Bush administration taking a guideline approach to workplace ergonomics, in lieu of the regulatory approach pursued by Clinton, OSHA released its first draft of industry-specific ergonomics guidelines for comment on August 30. Concentrating on the nursing home industry, the document, entitled “Ergonomics for the Prevention of Musculoskeletal Disorders: Guidelines for Nursing Homes,” has already received support from a variety of industry groups.
According to OSHA, the guidelines were developed by reviewing “existing ergonomic practices and programs in the nursing home industry, as well as available scientific information regarding ergonomic stressors and control methods.” OSHA also “conducted one-on-one meetings with major stakeholder groups to gather the best available information on the stressors that are present in typical operations and on practices, programs, and processes that have been successfully used in the nursing home industry.”
The guidelines, outlined below, are available in full on OSHA’s website at www.osha.gov/ergonomics (see “Draft Guidelines for Nursing Homes”). Interested parties should submit written comments to OSHA by September 30.
This article originally appeared in The Ergonomics Report™ on 2002-09-01.