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January 28, 2008
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We had a laboratory exercise this past Friday where we practiced moving people into and out of wheelchairs. I have never even ridden in a wheelchair, much less pushed one, taken one apart, or moved a person out of one, so this was an eye-opening experience for me.
I was pretty proud of myself, because I could actually move a person as necessary. Of course, before we started, we were shown how it should be done using proper form and good body mechanics. With leverage or with proper lifting, I could actually move someone who is bigger than me without hurting myself, or wearing myself out.
Interestingly, on the instances when I wasn't using good body mechanics, it was because of my massage therapy training. In massage, the work we do is intimate. However, we are trained to avoid inappropriate touching such as secondary contact. We manipulate people with our hands, forearms, elbows and even our feet (depending upon specialty). Occasionally, we lean with our body, such as a hip or leg, for support, stability, or to assist with a slow descent of the leg off the table, as with a psoas stretch.
To move someone out of a wheelchair who may be able to assist very little or not at all, there is a lot of body contact. It requires an intimacy akin to what you would share with family. Their head may be on you shoulder, you may lean their body on yours, anything to get that patient SAFELY to a supportive surface. Such body contact would be considered a breach of ethics for massage therapy and could get you taken to trial by the State Board and get your licensed revoked!
Luckily, one of my lab partners, who is an experienced Physical Therapy Assistant, understood my background and was able to articulate my dilemma for me and talk me through what I needed to do. She reassured me that with practice, I would get past this hesitation and would do what needed to be done without feeling weird about it.
tags: massage massagetherapy wellness massage therapy bodywork health
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Posted by linda at January 28, 2008 1:07 PM
