Moving and Handling Solutions in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic in the UK: Exploring the Impact of COVID-19 on a Caregiver’s Ability to Carry out Their Role in Home Care

The global coronavirus pandemic has impacted enormously on health and social care delivery in a vast range of clinical and social environments. This article aims to explore the impact of social distancing on training and safe patient handling with a reduced care workforce and possible solutions that have been trialed in the UK to minimize risk. The article examines the training and competency assessment of care givers; specifically the use of an evidence-based online system for training using a variety of methods, evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of the different methods, exploring the use of the newly developed competency evaluation tool (CET) to give constructive and valuable feedback in the areas that the care givers required improvement. Our findings will be of interest to anyone interested in using an evidence based systematic risk management approach to moving and handling (M&H) during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond (into the “new nomal”).

Harrison D, Webb J

Keywords: COVID-19, moving and handling, home health care, education, competency assessment, online learning, elearning, virtual learning