Body Mechanics

Some of the most common injuries sustained by members of the health care team are
severe musculoskeletal strains. Many injuries can be avoided by the conscious use of
proper body mechanics when performing physical labor.

Body mechanics is the utilization of correct muscles to complete a task safely and
efficiently, without undue strain on any muscle or joint.

PRINCIPLES OF GOOD BODY MECHANICS

Maintain a Stable Center of Gravity

• Keep your center of gravity low

• Keep your back straight
• Bend at the knees and hips

Maintain a Wide Base of Support

• This will provide you with maximum stability while lifting.

o Keep your feet apart
o Place one foot slightly ahead of the other
o Flex your knees to absorb jolts
o Turn with your feet

Maintain the Line of Gravity

• The line should pass vertically through the base of support

o Keep your back straight
o Keep the object being lifted close to your body

Maintain Proper Body Alignment

• Tuck in your buttocks.

• Pull your abdomen in and up.
• Keep your back flat.
• Keep your head up.
• Keep your chin in.
 • Keep your weight forward and supported on the outside of your feet.

TECHNIQUES OF BODY MECHANICS

Lifting

• Use the stronger leg muscles for lifting

• Bend at the knees and hips; keep your back straight
• Lift straight upward, in one smooth motion

Reaching

• Stand directly in front of and close to the object.

• Avoid twisting or stretching
• Use a stool or ladder for high objects
• Maintain a good balance and a firm base of support.
• Before moving the object, be sure that it is not too large or too heavy
• Pivoting

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR PERFORMING PHYSICAL TASKS

• It is easier to pull, push, or roll an object than it is to lift it

• Movements should be smooth and coordinated rather than jerky
• Less energy or force is required to keep an object moving than it is to start and
stop it
• Use the arm and leg muscles as much as possible, the back muscles as little as
possible
• Keep the work as close as possible to your body. It puts less of a strain on your
back, legs, and arms
• Keep the work at a comfortable height to avoid excessive bending at the waist
• Keep your body in good physical condition to reduce the chance of injury
REASONS FOR THE USE OF PROPER BODY MECHANICS
Use proper body mechanics in order to avoid the following:

• Excessive fatigue
• Muscle strains or tears
• Skeletal injuries
• Injury to the patient
• Injury to assisting staff members

Summary

As a healthcare provider, you lift, bend, carry, and walk a good part of your day. You are
at risk of hurting yourself or your patients if you do not use good body mechanics. A
healthcare provider who is injured may suffer a loss of livelihood and health. Learning
about and practicing good Body Mechanics is essential for your personal well-being; and
for the patients that you care for.
Lifting techniques

Deep Squat Lift

• A deep squat is performed to position

the hips below the level of the knees.
• The lifter’s feet straddle the object, with
the upper extremities parallel to each other.
• The lifter grasps the opposite sides, the
handles, or the underside of the object.
• The lifter’s trunk is maintain in a vertical
position, and the lumbar spine remains in
lordosis with an anterior pelvic tilt.

Power lift

• Only half squat is performed so hips

remain above the level of the knees.
• The lifter’s feet are parallel to each other
and remain behind the object, with upper
extremities parallel to each other.
• The lifter grasp the opposite sides, the
handles, or under the bottom of the object.

Straight Leg lift

• The lifter’s knees are only slightly flexed

or may be fully extended.
• The lower extremities are either parallel
to each other or straddle the object, and the
upper extremities are either parallel to each
other or grasp the opposites sides of the
object.
 One-Leg Stance Lift
(Golfer’s Lift)

• The one-leg stance

lift can be used light
objects that can be
lifted easily with one
upper extremity.
• The lifter faces the
object, with the body
weight shifted from
onto the forward lower
extremity.
• To pick up the object, the weight-bearing lower extremity is partially flexed at the
hip and knee while non-weight bearing lower extremity is extended to
counterbalance the forward movement of the trunk.

Half-kneeling Lift

• To perform the half-

kneeling lift, the lifter
aligns the body by
kneeling on one knee
positioned behind.
• On one side of the
object and the opposite side lower extremity to one side of the object with the foot
flat and the hip and knee flexed approximately 90 degrees.
• The object is grasped and lifted by the upper extremities, placed on the thigh of
the flexed lower extremity, and moved close to the body before the flexed lower
extremity begins rising to standing.
Traditional Lift

• The lifter faces the object with the

feet anteroposterior on each side of
the object and the lower extremities in
a deep squat.
• This position provided a low
center of gravity and a wide base of
support for the lifter.

Stoop Lift

• When an object rests

below the level of the waist
but can be reached without
squatting, the lifter can stoop
to lift.
• The person partially flexes
the hips and knees and
maintains the lumbar spine in
its normal lordosis.
• The lifter grasps the object
and uses the lower
extremities to raise the body
and the object.
 Vital Signs

Studying Vital Signs (Why should I?)

Radiologic technologists must have knowledge and understanding of how to monitor and
record vital signs. Recording vital sign information in the hospital chart or on the radiology
requisition is an important part of the care of the patient.

Unless a registered nurse is present to do so, vital signs should be taken by the
radiographer when:

1. A patient is brought into the diagnostic imaging department for any invasive
diagnostic procedure or treatment.
2. Before and after the patient received medication.
3. Any time the patient’s general condition suddenly changes
4. If the patient reports nonspecific symptoms of physical distress such as simply not
feeling well or feeling “different”

Measuring Vital Signs

• Vital signs are also called "cardinal signs"

• It is an important part of a physical assessment.
• Includes measurement of:
o body temperature
o pulse
o respiration
o blood pressure
• In the event of an emergency situation, the radiologic technologist must be
prepared by knowing how to measure each of the vital signs and know what those
readings mean.
Body Temperature

• Body temperature is the physiologic balance between heat produced in body

tissues and heat lost to the environment.
• It must remain stable if the body's cellular and enzymatic activities are to function
efficiently.
• Body temperature is controlled by a small structure in the basal region of the
diencephalon of the brain called the hypothalamus.
• A patient whose body temperature is elevated above normal limits is said the have
a fever, or pyrexia.
• A fever indicates a disturbance in the heat-regulating centers of the body, usually
as a result of a disease process.
• A person with a body temperature of below normal limits is said to have
hypothermia, which may be indicative of a pathologic process.
• Normal Vital Sign Range

Adult 97.8° to 99°F 36.5° to 37.2°C

Child 97.8° to 98.6°F 36.5° to 37°C
Infant 99° to 99.7°F 37.2° to 37.6°C
In order to convert Fahrenheit to degree Celsius, Fahrenheit minus 32 then times 5/9

In order to convert degree Celsius to Fahrenheit, degree Celsius times 9/5 then +32

Measuring Body Temperature

• The site selected for measuring body temperature must be chosen with care
depending on the patient's age, state of mind, and ability to cooperate in the
procedure.
• There are four areas of the body in which temperature is usually measured:
o oral site
o tympanic site
o rectal site
o axillary site
 Oral site Tympanic site

Rectal site Axillary site

Oral body temperature

• When using an electronic thermometer, the probe is placed under the patient's
tongue and held in place until the instrument signals that it has registered a
temperature.
• If the temperature seems unusually high or low, ask the patient if they have just
eaten or drunk something hot or cold.
• Mercury thermometers for the use of oral temperatures are no longer used in the
medical field.

Tympanic body temperature

• The tympanic membrane thermometer, also called an aural thermometer, is a

small, hand-held device that measures the temperature of blood vessels in the
tympanic membrane of the ear.
• This provides a reading close to the core body temperature if correctly placed.

Rectal body temperature

• The rectal site is considered to provide the most reliable measurement of body
temperature.
• It is in close proximity to the pelvic viscera or "core" temperature of the body.
• Body temperature should not be measured rectally if the patient is restless or has
rectal pathology.
• Normally, a rectal temperature is taken on infants and not on adults.
• Use a thermometer with a blunt tip.
• Never use an oral thermometer to take a rectal temperature. Probe covers are
often colored red for rectal temperature.

Axillary body temperature

• Safest method of measuring body temperature because it is noninvasive.

• The time and precision of placement needed to obtain an accurate reading make
this method somewhat unreliable.
Pulse

• The pulse can be detected most easily in the following areas of the body.

Apical Pulse

• Over the apex of the heart (heard with a stethoscope)

Radial pulse

• Over the radial artery at the wrists at the base of the thumbs

Carotid pulse

• Over the carotid artery at the front of the neck

Femoral pulse

• Over the femoral artery in the groin

Popliteal pulse

• At the posterior surface of the knee

Temporal pulse

• Over the temporal artery in front of the ear

Dorsalis Pedis Pulse

• At the top of the feet in line with the groove between the extensor
tendons of the great and second toe (may be congenitally absent)

Posterior tibial pulse

• On the inner side of the ankles

Brachial pulse

• In the groove between the biceps and triceps muscles above the
elbow at the antecubital fossa
Assessment of the pulse

• The pulse rate is a rapid and relatively efficient means of assessing cardiovascular
function.
o Tachycardia – abnormally rapid heart rate (over 100 beats/min)
o Bradycardia – abnormally slow heart (below 60 beats/min)
• If a registered nurse is not present to take the pulse rate, be prepared to make this
assessment before beginning any invasive diagnostic imaging procedure in order
to establish a baseline reading and to reassess it frequently until the procedure is
complete and the patient leaves the department.

Respiration

• The function of the respiratory system is to exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide
between the external environment and the blood circulating in the body.

Respiratory rate

• The average rate of respiration (one inspiration and one expiration)

o Adult: 15 to 20 breaths/min
o Infant: 30 to 60 breaths/min
• Respiration of fewer than 10 breaths/min for an adult may result in cyanosis,
apprehension, restlessness and a change in level of consciousness because the
supply of oxygen is inadequate to meet the needs of the body.
• Normal respirations are quiet, effortless and uniform.
• Medication, illness, exercise or age may increase or decrease respirations,
depending on the body’s metabolic need for oxygen.
• When a patient is using more than the normal effort to breathe, he or she is
described as dyspneic or as having dyspnea (difficulty in breathing)

Assessment of Respiration

• As with other vital signs, it is important to establish a baseline respiratory rate

because changes in respiration are often an early sign of a threatened physiologic
state.
 • Remember, however, that the rate of respiration increases with physical exercise
or emotion.
• When assessing respiration, observe the rate, depth, quality and pattern.

Blood pressure

• Blood pressure is the amount of blood flow ejected from the left ventricle of the
heart during systole and the amount of resistance the blood meets due to systemic
vascular resistance.
• Maintenance of blood pressure depends on peripheral resistance, pumping action
of the heart, blood volume, blood viscosity and the elasticity of the vessel walls.
• If the volume of blood decreases because hemorrhage or dehydration, the blood
pressure falls because of a diminished amount of fluid in the arteries. Fluid or blood
replacement reverses the problem.
• The amount of red blood cells in the blood plasma determines the viscosity of the
blood.
• With an increased number, the blood thickens or becomes more viscous and
subsequently increases the blood pressure.
• The arteries are normally elastic in nature. However, age or build-up of
atherosclerotic plaque reduces flexibility of the arteries and increases blood
pressure.
• The peripheral blood vessels distribute blood ejected into the circulatory system to
the various body organs. When the peripheral blood vessels are in normal
physiologic state, they are partially contracted.
• If this normal physiologic state is changed because of changes in environmental
factors such as heat and cold, medication, disease, or other obstructive conditions,
peripheral blood vessel resistance may increase.
• This increase causes an increase in blood pressure or the peripheral blood vessel
resistance may decline, thus causing a decrease in blood pressure.
• Blood pressure normally varies with age, gender, physical development, body
position, time of day and health status.
 • As a person ages, the blood pressure usually increases as the body systems that
control blood pressure deteriorate.

Did you know?

• Blood pressure is usually lower in the morning after a night of sleep than later in
the day after activity. Blood pressure increases after a large intake of food.
Emotions and strenuous activity usually cause systolic blood pressure to increase.
• Men usually have higher blood pressure than women.
• Infants generally have higher blood pressure than adults.
• Adolescents have the lowest blood pressure.

Systolic pressure

• Highest point reached during contraction of the left ventricle of the heart as it
pumps blood into the aorta.

Diastolic pressure

• Lowest point to which the pressure drops during relaxation of the ventricles and
indicates the minimal pressure exerted against the arterial walls continuously.

Sphygmomanometer

• The instrument used to measure blood pressure

Normal values

• In men and women, the normal ranges are 90 to 120 mm Hg for systolic pressure
and 50 to 70 mm Hg for diastolic pressure.
• Adolescent patients’ blood pressure ranges from 85 to 130 mm Hg systolic and 45
to 85 mm Hg diastolic.
• A patient is considered to be hypertensive if the systolic blood pressure is
consistently greater than 140 mm Hg and if the diastolic blood pressure is
consistently greater than 90 mm Hg (millimeters of mercury)
• A patient is considered hypotensive if the systolic blood pressure is less than 90
mm Hg.