LAUSR

Abstract The prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders in healthcare professionals is high, patient handling tasks being one of the main causes. This article focused on the analysis of the risk of musculoskeletal disorders in patient handling tasks, performed by emergency medical technicians. The study included 20 technicians from the National Institute of Medical Emergency and a total of 292 analysed postures. REBA results indicated that, of the 292 postures, 47% presented a medium risk and 29% high risk. The task “transport of the chair on the stairs - bottom position” obtained the most critical REBA score and the task “placement of the stair chair into the ambulance - top position” involved higher effort, according to the technicians’ perception. With this study, it was possible to diagnose the risk level of musculoskeletal disorders in tasks of manual handling performed by these professionals, allowing to identify specific actions that can compromise their health and safety. Hereafter, based on risk factors identification, it is relevant to the sector to develop solutions for these first responders, focusing on design features, based on an ergonomics participatory methodology.