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Nurses and aides are working together to promote better and safer patient/staff safety protocols. Some are seeking legislation.

At Westerly Hospital, both members of the CAT scan team have sustained virtually identical back injuries lifting patients, and been forced to take time out of work to recover. They’re not the only ones, either, according to Jan Salsich, president of the nurses’ union at the hospital.

With nurses lifting an estimated 1.8 tons per shift, Salsich said, and as the median age for nurses reaches the mid-40s and patients grow heavier, nurses and certified nursing assistants (CNAs) are increasingly at risk of hurting their backs and shoulders.

“I and my co-workers suffer chronic pain,” said Salsich, speaking on her cell phone from outside her chiropractor’s office.

Health care workers have some of the highest job-related injury rates, both in Rhode Island and nationwide. In 2004, Bureau of Labor Statistics figures show, the state’s hospitals reported about 1,600 workplace injuries or illnesses, or 9.8 per 100 full-time workers. They had 69 percent more injuries involving lost work time, and double the average back injury rate.

Nursing homes reported about 1,400 injuries or illnesses, or 11.1 per 100 full-time workers – more than twice the private-sector average of 5.2 per 100. Nationwide, hospitals and nursing homes together reported more than half a million injuries and illnesses.

Now, after years of working with their employers to reduce their risk of injury, health care workers’ unions have turned to the General Assembly for help.

A bill introduced by state Rep. Grace Diaz, D-Providence, a former CNA herself, would require every licensed health care facility to set up a committee, chaired by a nurse, to develop a safe patient handling program, with policies aimed at preventing musculoskeletal disorders among workers and injuries to patients.

The measure, called the Safe Patient Handling Act of 2006, would also require facilities to implement rules to virtually eliminate manual lifting, transferring and repositioning of patients, except in life-threatening emergencies or other extraordinary circumstances.

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