Effect of Flooring on Ergonomics in Healthcare

The Covid-19 pandemic has challenged the world with two of the most difficult years in recent history. Frontline healthcare workers in particular have experienced a new level of strain and demand in the workplace. Yet still, healthcare facilities are expected to provide a safe and healthy environment for patients and a positive working experience for staff. Be it a hospital, outpatient facility, long-term care home, pharmacy or laboratory, the physical and emotional health of the provider has a direct impact on the quality of care delivered.

The average age of today’s nurse is 52 years old. Nurses work 10 to 12 hour shifts, walk numerous kilometres a day and experience other physical demands as part of their job. For these reasons, it is critical that healthcare providers focus on and enhance the ergonomic conditions of their staff’s environment to improve productivity and retention. Improved seating, better work tools and new technology all contribute to a more ergonomically friendly healthcare space. The same goes for the not so obvious contributor to employee comfort and health — flooring.

Ergonomics as it relates to flooring should be comprehensively defined to include comfort, fatigue, musculoskeletal strain and injury, and emotional stress created by noise in the interior environment. Each factor contributes to or detracts from the general well-being of patients, visitors or staff.

Injuries among healthcare workers rank among the highest by industry, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Musculoskeletal disorders account for one-third of all occupational injuries reported to employers, while back, leg and foot fatigue are close behind. It is a major reason designers, facility managers and healthcare administrators are paying more attention to creating environments that support the healthcare workforce.

Methodical Flooring Specification
Most traditional flooring products provide little, if any, ergonomic relief and can consequently contribute to pain, discomfort and fatigue in healthcare staff. Flooring performance was once solely measured by durability, maintainability, patient mobility and affordability. While these characteristics are still important, expectations for a floor are changing and it is being asked to do more.

When building and designing a space, the focus of the work environment must be on people and not just product. It should be about how flooring and other materials can enhance the lives of patients, residents and staff. This is achieved by specifying a flooring product that is more appropriately designed and engineered for healthcare applications.

Evolution of the Built Environment
A clear relationship between the built environment and impact of flooring on nurse wellness was indicated in evidence-based design studies for healthcare facilities conducted by the Center for Health Design. These studies also reveal the effect on the patient experience and health outcomes. A nurse that is not fatigued, stressed or in pain provides better quality of care at bedside. Similarly, a therapist, pharmacist or lab technician is more attentive and productive when the workplace provides enhanced ergonomics.

Hospital staff who have experienced ergonomic flooring report better underfoot comfort and relief, and often mention the reduced noise and acoustic properties of the product. Nurses have even requested reassignment to other hospital departments because of the better flooring areas. What’s more, flooring products that reduce noise and provide superior acoustic properties also support the patient healing process and reveal how ergonomics is playing a much larger role in product specification.

Drawing from lessons learned through evidence-based design research, the direction of designers and architects today is away from the sterile, institutional environment to one that is more natural, warmer and homeopathic in nature. This design is influenced by the hospitality industry, with a focus on providing a soothing, pleasurable environment for patients, visitors and staff.

Innovative Technology
It’s important to factor force reduction and energy restitution, or the storing and returning of energy, to understand the science behind truly ergonomic flooring. Force reduction measures the amount of energy a floor will absorb when stepped on. Energy restitution measures the amount of energy that is returned from the flooring to the body when a step is made. These are key components to consider when selecting the right flooring for a healthcare setting.

With a softer floor, more energy will be absorbed by the floor and less energy will return to the foot. As a result, more force will be required to take each step. Alternatively, the harder the floor, the greater the return of energy to the foot. This causes more discomfort to the body. Finding the optimal balance between the energy the floor should absorb and the amount that should comfortably be returned to the body is essential.

Mark Huxta is healthcare director of sales for Ecore, a company that transforms reclaimed waste into flooring surfaces that perform well beyond industry standards. Ecore’s flooring products have been shown to provide excellent foot-fall reduction and energy return compared to other traditional resilient floor coverings, and are also able to reduce structure-borne sound to create a much quieter space.