Nurses and bad backs

[Blackcats7]

I am a retired nurse and I have severe degenerative disc disease to the degree I can barely walk and need crutches or a rollator. I started nursing in 1984 long before there were hoists and lifting/ handling aids in common use and before the implementation of Manual Handling training, which I was only sent to learn in 1994. Even after this training the equipment was not always available or working in non hospital settings there was not enough room to use it or I was working on my own so just had to cope as best I could. Management did not encourage any form of complaint or request for additional resources and would find ways to punish those deemed awkward or lazy.
Like most if not all nurses I regularly moved and lifted people of very heavy weights, often on my own. We were just expected to get on with it.
I first started having back pain in 1987 and had to take time off work because of it for the first time. From then on I always had lower back pain to some degree and from time to time would have severe episodes where my back would go into spasm. Although I did see my gp at times nothing ever was investigated and I because so many of my colleagues had aches and pains from the job I just sort of accepted it.
If I had known then how severe things would become I would have made very different choices.
I was reading up on nurses with back pain and the numbers are large, mostly amongst older nurses like me with many years of service.
Nobody seems to be successful in claiming injury benefit or compensation of any sort because there is generally no single incident recorded as the injuries have been accumulative over years of practice and of course the argument is made that the disease could have occurred anyway from general ageing.
Have any other nurses here had experience of back issues and if so have you tried to or had any success in getting your employer to accept responsibility?
I have been reading decisions on the pension ombudsman site and nobody ever seems able to make this stick even though it is in my view fairly obvious that nurses (at least from years ago) get bad backs and we all know it.

I'm sorry you're suffering and have been for many years from what you say.

I'm a retired nurse and started training in 1973 - yes things were very different in the past. When I think of techniques like the infamous 'Australian Lift' to move very heavy patients up the bed, it's a wonder any of us have a functioning spine!

Fortunately I don't have any specific back problems that could be blamed on nursing - I get some lower back pain if I walk for more than an hour and the odd bout of sciatica but that's likely to older age.

As you say the damage done is cumulative over the years so it would be hard for any nurse to to prove a case against an employer.

Started my training on the early 80s and worked the wards for most of my career. I too remember awful lifting techniques.. 2 young girls heaving a patient bodily from the bath with only the help of a towel makes me shudder at the thought.

My back is suffering now and also one of my knees I hurt doing an Australian lift.. I even remember the patient!

It's like many jobs though.. it was what it was. I also remember bin men heaving bins on their backs, the coal men carrying heavy bags. Manual handling and health and safety just wasn't as it is now, so I don't think an employer could be deemed negligent.

It was accepted it was hard work and expected we couldn't do it in to old age.. hence the retirement age was 55 even then. Special Classes also included physios for the same reason.

I trained in 1972 and I too remember manual handling as it was then, it’s no wonder I have problems with my back, neck and shoulders. I don’t remember there being any way of reporting injuries and OH only seemed to exist through a ‘staff doctor’ who you were summonsed to if you had been off more than 48 hours in any 6 month period.
likelihood of being able to get compensation is zero I imagine; how are you going to prove that poor nursing practices by today’s standards caused your ill health OP? Unless you have comprehensive records going back to the beginning then i imagine it will be impossible.
I’m sorry you’re in such pain.

It is not about me wanting to try and claim anything as I am long past the point of trying to take on any personal battle but is more a concern at the injustice to nurses in general and wondering if anyone has ever succeeded.
As regards bin men etc I think that as the vast majority of nurses were historically women we were unusual in being expected to lift heavy weights as part of our jobs and less well equipped than men who at least had higher physical strength to start with. Plus I doubt many bins weighed 18 stone plus and I certainly had patients of that weight to lift.

I assume if any nurse has succeeded it would have been for a specific injury caused by say faulty equipment. As most back problems are cumulative over many years and creep up on you it would be hard for them to prove under which employer the damage occurred.

Let this be a lesson for those who deride 'Elf & Safety' - rules were brought in for very sound reasons.

And another lesson, whatever industry you are in join a trade union - at least then you'll have access to legal services should you need to claim for injuries at work.

I sympathise with you everything you say is true. I had an accident in 1982 lifting a quadraplaegic 16 stone man off the loo.. on my own as no staff available I was working alone on a 7 bed ward. For physically handicapped men I slipped on his urine and fell backwards, banged my lower back on the toilet bowl and had to lie there for over 1 hour with him on top of me until I got staff relief to go for my break. I was off work for 3 months OH said it was a bruise! And I received £46 compensation. I have never been able to lift since then and had to give up nursing in 84 because of it. I am in severe pain daily have spinal injections to try to numb the spasms and pain and it has totally affected my life. I still have all my paperwork I tried claiming Industrial injury benefit but was just fobbed off. It so annoys me that there are no cases to set a president . Miners can claim for white finger, forces for hearing loss, police and fire fighters and others for asbestosis in the work place but us Nurses forced to work alone who just got on with it because we cared and we HAD NO OPTION get nothing .

I started nursing in the 80s I remember all the terrible standard practices we just did and thought nothing of .The Australian lift which was going to transform nursing.
The dragging patients up out of baths using a towel and the communal wellies that you used so you could have a foot in the bathwater .
When i started nursing all the older nurses in my hospital worked in theatre or out patients as their backs were knackered . That was the assumption of what happened after 20yrs plus of nursing if you were lucky .
No hoists no glide sheets .Even the beds were a fixed height .
I considered myself very lucky to have got away with only nerve damage in my neck and shoulders , thank you Australian lift.
However since I retired a couple of yrs ago I've had so many back and joint issues .Nothing that can be fixed sadly but all impacting on my quality of life .I'm so glad the training and equipment is now in place and I really hope we're the last generation to have theses issues.
Yes I wish there was some recognition of the damage .

Slightly different, but as an RMN who only started 15 / 20 years ago, I fucked my back in restraints.

Nothing that can be done and we had training, that changed every year, but as an 8st woman trying to help restrain an 18st man, who is in the middle of a psychotic episode and is terrified, angry and determined he needs to harm you before you harm him, there's always a risk of injury.

I don't work in a role where that's needed anymore (I couldn't if I wanted to) but I know lots of RMNs in their 30s/40s/50s who have long term damage caused by restraints or being assaulted, but things that have crept up over years of damage rather than a one off event you could claim for.