“Lest We Should Forget” January 2023

Podcast Description:

Over the years the drive for the implementation of SPHM programs has evolved from its initial
aim to reduce the number of injuries to nurses and other healthcare professionals to the impact
is has on patient outcomes. As we start to see the explicit integration of SPH, mobility and falls
management, it’s important that we don’t forget why we started safe patient handling. This
podcast seeks to remind us of the unintentional sacrifices many healthcare professionals have
made over the years to make sure their patients are comfortable and well cared for. It reminds
us of the fact that behind the data we collect to evaluate our SPHM interventions’, there are
people whose injury is so much more than a statistic.

Podcast Guest:

Heather M. Monaghan, MHSc, RN has been a Registered Nurse since January 1990. Having
started her career in acute general surgery, Heather made the move into geriatrics and quickly
rose through the ranks to become a Ward Sister, a Clinical Nurse Advisor, a Nurse Educator, a
Nurse Director, one of the first Nurse Consultants in the UK, and finally a Project Manager for
the Chief Nursing officer of a large NHS Trust. After receiving a first class honors degree in
Nursing Studies and a Master’s degree in Nursing Practice, Heather became involved in SPHM in
the early 1990s. She implemented her first SPHM program in 1993. Since relocating to the US in
2005, Heather has been very involved in SPHM and worked with Audrey Nelson in the re-launch
of the VHA SPHM program in 2008. Since then she has worked as an international SPHM
consultant, and has been the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of SPHM & Falls
Management since it began in 2010.