Perception, Experience, and Ground Reaction Forces When Performing and Assessing Pivot Transfers

This study investigated the ground reaction forces involved in performing pivot transfers and whether therapists’ level of experience influenced the ability to grade the patient’s required assistance during the transfer accurately. Participants included 9 experienced occupational and physical therapists and 14 occupational and physical therapy students. Each participant performed 12 pivot transfers involving 4 assistance levels (ie, min, mod, max, and total). While no difference was found in the accuracy of rating the transfers based on experience (P > .05), there were significant interactions with experience and assistance levels where ground reaction forces plateaued for the experienced therapists but proportionally increased with the assistance level for the inexperienced participants (P < .001). Additionally, the patient’s ground reaction forces were a good predictor for rating the effort during the transfer (P < .05). Overall, this study demonstrates the high degree of variability in accurately perceiving assistance levels when performing pivot transfers and speaks to the complexity of this common task among many occupational and physical therapists. Future research should investigate alternative methods for patient transfers involving less personal risk.

Stringer EJ, Rice MS

Keywords: patient transfer, patient handling, occupational therapists, physical therapists