Poor Postures in Nursing Students' Care Operations: A Field Study

Objective To assess the occurrence of poor working postures in nursing students across five fundamental nursing procedures — urinary catheterization, oral care, bed bathing, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), and bed making — in order to provide evidence for mitigating ergonomic risks in clinical training. Methods A field observational study was conducted using the Ovako Working Posture Analysis System (OWAS) to classify and analyze the postures of 219 nursing students while they performed the five aforementioned nursing procedures. Results A total of 54658 valid images were extracted, of which 81.1% represented poor working postures. Bed making had the highest rate of poor postures (89.2%). The higher posture hazard scores were observed during the removal of the bedside table and chair and sweeping the bed (2.5 ± 0.1), airway opening (2.4 ± 0.2), and bed unit arrangement (2.4 ± 0.1). Conclusions Poor working postures are widely prevalent among nursing students during practical training. To reduce ergonomic risks, optimization of equipment height, introduction of ergonomic intervention tools, and reinforcement of posture safety education should be prioritized.