Exam category: Patient Care → Ergonomics and Monitoring
Why it matters: Moving a patient safely, managing the tubes and lines attached to them, and noticing an abnormal vital sign protect the patient on your table, and good body mechanics protect you. The registry tests body mechanics, transfers, attached medical equipment, oxygen delivery, and vital signs.
Radiographers move, transfer, and monitor people who are often sick, injured, sedated, or unstable — sometimes while those patients are attached to medical equipment. This section is about doing that safely, for both the patient and yourself.
Wide base of support, bend at the knees (not the waist), keep the load close to your body, pivot your feet instead of twisting your spine. Always explain a transfer before starting, and lock wheels/brakes on stretchers, wheelchairs, and beds before every transfer. Body mechanics has three parts. Alignment keeps the spine straight and the load centered. Movement uses the large muscles of the legs and turns the whole body with the feet; bending and twisting the back is the common cause of strain. Balance comes from a wide base of support with the body's center of gravity, which sits in the pelvis and lower abdomen, kept over that base. Work at a comfortable height instead of stooping, and push a heavy wheeled object rather than pull it.
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During a transfer, which muscles should do the work of lifting and moving?
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