Caregivers give their time to help their patients recover from their physical injuries, and assist them when they are too old to do physical activities. However, there are common caregiver injuries that one should take note to prevent them from happening or cause more serious damage.

Common caregiver injuries can occur while a caregiver is providing services to a patient. It is important for a caregiver to acquire important certifications in order to have knowledge about how caregivers take care of themselves whilst in the middle of their service.

Eleanor Gaccetta’s One Caregiver’s Journey is a personal memoir about how the author took care of her mother for nearly a decade until her passing. It provides a first-person account of the challenges, changes, and complexities of being a full-time caregiver. Ellie shares practical tips, fun anecdotes, and empowerment for those taking care of their loved ones. This book is written in a journal form that extends six months after the author’s mother’s death. It recognizes how special the time she spent taking care of her mother was and how she had learned so much from the experience.

Common Caregiver Injuries

The most common caregiver injuries are strains and sprains. Caregivers all around the world experience these injuries that limit their movements when helping their patients with tasks and treatments. Strains and sprains are similar injuries affecting either the tendons or the ligaments. If left untreated they will escalate into tears of the tendons or ligaments.

A strain is an injury to one’s muscle or tendons, while a sprain is an injury affecting the ligaments and capsule of a joint. Both injuries can cause pain around the affected joint, swelling, limited flexibility, and motion difficulties. A symptom of a strain is muscle spasms around the affected area, while a sprain will cause bruising.

Prevention

Injuries are not always avoidable. However, safety measures can always help prevent common caregiver injuries from happening. Here are some preventive measures to consider:

Stay in shape. If your muscles and joints are too weak because of lack of proper conditioning, injuries may happen. You must always stay in shape and observe the proper posture, especially when dealing with supporting weighted objects.

Photo by Maksim Goncharenok

Use the proper equipment. Caregivers are professionals that have the training in using the right equipment in helping their patients. When you are a new caregiver, you must get trained to use caregiving tools and equipment to avoid physical injuries.

Warm up and condition your body. Caregiving requires physical activities. As a professional, you must at least get your body ready for the extraneous activities that may come your way. Stretch your muscles gently and do some movements until all your muscles are ready for work. Cool-down by stretching the muscles without actively moving your body. The cool down helps you avoid muscle pain after the active movements.

Learn to take a rest. Your body is an instrument. If you are tired, you cannot function well, and you cannot carry your body properly. As a result, common caregiver injuries can happen. To prevent this from happening, schedule your break times and take your rest.

Treatment

A caregiver should also have the knowledge in dealing with common caregiver injuries as these are not always avoidable. Mild strains and sprains can be treated by a technique known as RICE. RICE stands for Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation. RICE should be done for the first 24-48 hours to help ease the injured area.

Rest

When you already feel the symptoms of strain or sprain, let the affected area take a rest to give it time to heal. You may use this time to observe and know the scope of the matter.

Ice

When inflammation and swelling start to take over, apply an ice bag to the affected area. Ice helps reduce swelling and inflammation. Leave the ice bag on the affected area for 20 minutes and remove it after 20 minutes. Repeat this as much as you can within the first 24 to 48 hours of the symptom.

Compression

Compression on the affected area can also reduce the swelling caused by common caregiver injuries. Use a bandage to wrap the affected area. You must not wrap it too tight to let the blood flow freely.

Elevation

Elevating the affected area from the level of the heart reduces the swelling and inflammation. If the affected area concerns the legs, keep yourself bed-ridden for up to two days to treat the injury.

You must also remember that if the symptoms persist, it is time to connect to medical professionals.

If you want to learn more about caregiving and the experience of taking care of patients, you can always read One Caregiver’s Journey by Eleanor Gaccetta, which is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, www.onecaregiversjourney.com, and the ReadersMagnet bookstore.