Soft Tissue Injuries- The Leader’s Role: S+H

Safety Leadership: Reducing exposure to help prevent soft-tissue injuries: The Leader’s Role

Safety + Health Magazine- April, 2022 By: Bruce Madsen and Grace Thai

Editor’s Note: Achieving and sustaining an injury-free workplace demands strong leadership. In this monthly column, experts from global consulting firm DEKRA share their point of view on what leaders need to know to guide their organizations to safety excellence.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 34% of all workplace injuries are the result of overexertion. In addition, 43% of all injuries are sprains, strains and tears – known as soft-tissue injuries or musculoskeletal injuries.

Because soft-tissue injuries occur beneath the skin, they can be less conspicuous, especially to leadership. This can cause leaders to be skeptical, affecting their relationship with the injured worker.

Often, workers may not be aware of what’s causing their chronic pain or discomfort. Therefore, leaders need to become aware of and understand what they can do to help. To reduce soft-tissue injuries, leaders need to:

-Understand what causes soft-tissue injuries
-Assess the nine load factors that drive these injuries
-Implement controls to reduce the load and exposure
-The nine types of ergonomic loads are:

Forceful exertion
Joint misalignment – an awkward posture in which a joint is flexed, bent or extended toward its end range of natural motion
Speed
Frequency
Duration
Static posture
Vibration
Contact stress – anything hard or sharp that can crush, distort, diminish blood supply or cut tissue when it contacts the body
Temperature
Each load places exposure on the body and can result in an injury.

3D medical animation can show what’s occurring underneath the skin. The response to seeing the evidence of the causes of injuries has been overwhelmingly positive. When leaders better understand soft-tissue injuries, they can employ the necessary adjustments in the work process to reduce or eliminate the exposure(s). Workers then learn the importance of body alignment (and other modified work methods) on injury prevention. Click here for the full article on soft tissue injuries from Safety + Health Magazine.