Pennsylvania is home to some of the best hospitals in the country, including Lancaster General Health, Lancaster Regional Medical Center, and Lancaster Rehabilitation Hospital. The nurses employed there are compassionate, hardworking, and dedicated to helping others.
Unfortunately, nurses often become injured while on the job, and are forced either to work while experiencing pain or to stop doing the work they love.
Common Nursing Injuries
Although nurses can experience a variety of injuries while on the job, many are musculoskeletal. Here, we take a look at some of the most common ailments that occur:
- Musculoskeletal injuries. Bending over to access patients, heavy lifting, and standing for long periods of time can cause significant nerve and muscle damage—and pain. Nurses often experience musculoskeletal injuries that affect the back, neck, and knees. These types of injuries are typically not felt when they immediately occur; rather, the nurse feels them after they progressively become worse over time.
- Needlestick and sharps injuries. Nurses put themselves in danger every day, and one of the biggest risks they take is handling needles and sharp objects. The threat of contracting a disease as a result of getting stuck with a needle or other object is very real. HIV and hepatitis B and C are a few of the diseases that nurses can acquire through needlesticks.
- Exposure to hazardous chemicals. Just about every employee who works in the healthcare industry is exposed to hazardous chemicals, mainly stemming from cleaning items. Formaldehyde, chlorine, ammonia, and Freon are just a few of the chemicals nurses encounter, and they can cause asthma, damage to the skin and eyes, and spontaneous abortion in pregnant nurses.
You May Be Entitled to Receive Workers’ Compensation
If you are one of the many nurses who were injured in the area this year, you may be entitled to receive workers’ compensation. The attorneys of Schmidt Kramer want to help you receive the benefits you deserve.
Contact us today through our website or by giving us a call at (717) 888-8888, and find out what we can do for you.