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Impact of Manual-Handling Training on Safe Lifting Practices among Hospital Porters in Nigeria

Abstract

Manual handling is an important occupational health and safety concern among hospital porters because their duties may involve lifting, carrying, pushing, pulling, transferring, and repositioning patients, equipment, supplies, waste containers, and other heavy or awkward loads. Repeated or improper manual handling may expose porters to musculoskeletal injuries, particularly back pain, muscle strains, sprains, and other work-related physical problems. Factors such as poor lifting techniques, excessive load weight, awkward postures, inadequate staffing, limited availability of mechanical aids, and insufficient occupational safety training may increase the risk of injury. Manual-handling training provides an opportunity to improve porters' knowledge and practical skills in safe lifting, load assessment, posture, teamwork, use of mechanical aids, and injury prevention. Against this background, this study investigates the impact of manual-handling training on safe lifting practices among hospital porters in Nigeria. The study will be anchored on Social Cognitive Theory, the Health Belief Model, and the Hierarchy of Controls. Social Cognitive Theory explains how hospital porters may acquire and maintain safe lifting behaviours through observation, practical demonstration, supervised practice, feedback, reinforcement, and self-efficacy. The Health Belief Model explains how porters' perceptions of susceptibility to manual-handling injuries, perceived severity, perceived benefits of safe lifting, perceived barriers, and cues to action may influence their occupational safety practices. The Hierarchy of Controls provides a framework for reducing manual-handling risks through elimination or reduction of hazardous lifting tasks, engineering controls such as trolleys and lifting equipment, administrative measures including training and safe-work procedures, and appropriate protective measures. Collectively, these theoretical perspectives provide a suitable framework for explaining how manual-handling training may influence safe lifting practices among hospital porters in Nigeria. The study will adopt a quantitative quasi-experimental or analytical cross-sectional research design. The study population will comprise adult hospital porters aged 18 years and above working in selected public and private hospitals across Nigeria. A multistage sampling technique will be used to select geopolitical zones, states, local government areas, hospitals, departments, units, and eligible porters. Manual-handling training will be assessed using indicators such as frequency and duration of training, instruction on safe lifting techniques, assessment of load weight and stability, appropriate body positioning, use of team lifting, patient-transfer techniques, use of trolleys and other mechanical aids, recognition of manual-handling hazards, injury prevention, emergency procedures, practical demonstrations, supervised practice, competency assessment, and refresher training. Safe lifting practices will be assessed using indicators such as correct lifting posture, bending of the knees rather than excessive bending of the back, keeping loads close to the body, avoiding unnecessary twisting, assessing loads before lifting, seeking assistance for heavy or awkward loads, appropriate use of trolleys and mechanical aids, proper patient-transfer techniques, safe pushing and pulling, appropriate communication during team lifting, and reporting of manual-handling hazards or injuries. Data will be collected using structured questionnaires, standardized manual-handling knowledge and practice assessment tools, direct workplace observation checklists, training records, occupational health records, and relevant hospital safety documents. Descriptive statistics will be used to summarize participants' characteristics, manual-handling duties, training exposure, and safe lifting practices. Inferential statistical techniques, including chi-square tests, t-tests, correlation analysis, and logistic or multiple regression analysis where appropriate, will be used to determine the impact of manual-handling training on safe lifting practices. Where a quasi-experimental design is adopted, safe lifting competency scores before and after the training intervention may be compared with those of a comparison group to determine changes associated with the intervention. Diagnostic tests will also be conducted to assess the reliability, validity, and robustness of the findings. The study is expected to find that manual-handling training has a significant positive impact on safe lifting practices among hospital porters in Nigeria. Porters exposed to structured and practical manual-handling training are expected to demonstrate better compliance with safe lifting procedures than porters without comparable training. Training may improve workers' ability to assess loads before lifting, adopt appropriate body posture, maintain stable lifting positions, avoid excessive twisting, and use available mechanical aids appropriately. Practical demonstrations and supervised exercises may strengthen porters' confidence and ability to safely transfer patients and handle equipment and supplies. Training may also encourage porters to seek assistance when handling heavy or awkward loads rather than attempting to lift them alone. However, inadequate availability of lifting equipment, heavy workloads, staff shortages, time pressure, poor maintenance of mechanical aids, inadequate supervision, and workplace cultures that encourage unsafe manual handling may reduce the effectiveness of training alone. The study therefore expects accessible, practical, competency-based, and continuous manual-handling training, supported by appropriate equipment and effective workplace safety policies, to contribute significantly to improved safe lifting practices among hospital porters in Nigeria. The study is expected to contribute to the literature on manual handling, occupational safety, musculoskeletal injury prevention, hospital occupational health, workplace health education, patient handling, ergonomics, and public health in Nigeria. The findings will provide useful information to the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, state ministries of health, hospitals, occupational health practitioners, physiotherapists, ergonomists, environmental health officers, hospital management, workers' organizations, and policymakers regarding strategies for reducing occupational injuries among hospital porters. The study will also provide evidence-based recommendations for integrating manual-handling training into hospital occupational safety programmes, improving access to mechanical lifting and transport aids, conducting routine ergonomic risk assessments, strengthening supervision of manual-handling activities, providing refresher training, improving staffing and workload management, and establishing effective systems for reporting and preventing manual-handling injuries across Nigerian hospitals.

Keywords: Manual-handling training, safe lifting practices, hospital porters, occupational health, musculoskeletal injuries, manual handling, ergonomics, workplace safety, patient handling, Nigeria, public health.