Transferring Clients from Bed to Wheelchair (Nursing)

00:04 Now that we've dangled the patient now we can start from the bed to the wheelchair transfer. Now if you've got your gait belt place this on the patient now it's important to stand as close as you can actually here to the patient now there's going to be a lot of personal space invaded but this is okay. If you remember from earlier those body mechanics if something's heavy, have it as close to you as you can possible.

00:27 Now it's important to place your feet with one foot pointing towards the patient the other one in the direction of the wheelchair so much like moving a patient in bed, think about you always want a foot in the direction that you're going to go so make sure you kind of keep this in mind when you're moving the patient. Now it's important here for good body mechanics, bend your knees and keep your back up straight.

00:52 Now here's where that communication needs to happen between you and your patient, we need to talk about do we move on three? Is it after three? So make sure you talk to your patient and have them help you so we're going to count to three here and have the patient stand using their legs to lift and you using the gait belt Now sometimes a patient could have a disease process like a stroke or maybe a recent surgery that one side is weaker than the other now the patient should always support their weight on their strong leg now what I mean by this if you have a patient that's moving to a wheelchair over here for example I'm going to have let's say my right leg here if it's my strong leg here, I want the patient to pivot on this foot closest to the wheelchair. So again, have the patient's strong leg closest to the wheelchair so they can use that one to pivot. So if you're transferring that person on their strong foot make sure you have the patient reach for the wheelchair while they're pivoting over. Now you want to turn yourself and the patient toward the direction of the wheelchair. Now once they've reached that lower them down slowly down to the seat now if we've had the gait belt on make sure you take this off before you let your patient set up in your wheelchair.

02:20 Hi guys, welcome to transfer from a bed to a chair or you can use the same technique from a bed to a wheelchair or a bedside commode you're really going to use this quite often so before we get started notice that I'm in the dangle position and it's really important that you have your patients wearing non-skid socks or footwear, we don't want them to slip also before we get started notice that I have my gait belt on and we're going to use this in the transfer and don't forget with the gait belt you want it snug but not too snug.

02:51 So Dean's going to help me today and when he grabs the gait belt we want to make sure his hands can go over this and then make sure that he's going to be able to use this as a guide to move me to the wheelchair.

03:02 Okay so now we're ready to transfer so when he's ready Dean's going to take his trunk in my trunk and be as close as possible that's really going to help you move the patient then once we do that, he's going to position his feet one towards me and one towards the direction he's going it's the same as when you're moving a patient up in bed, always point a foot towards the direction you're going so once he has his feet in place, he's going to let me know where we're going to sit. Then once we're there he's going to have make sure he bends his knees, keeps his back straight and then he's going to count to three and help me to use my legs to lift and he's going to. use the gait belt in that process. So then when we're trying to transfer you always want to instruct your patient to also reach for the wheelchair also note if your patient has one leg that's weaker than the other, you want your patient to support the weight on the strong leg so today during this demonstration my strong leg will be the right also note that the strong leg should be the one closest to the wheelchair so just remember that when you're setting up the wheelchair to your patient. So now we're going to have the patient pivot on that strong leg turn myself toward the direction of the wheelchair and slowly lower myself down. Okay so now Dean's going to demonstrate and help me.

04:26 So now if you notice I've got my gait belt on, I'm in the dangle position and Dean's going to position himself towards me and one foot towards the direction he's going, so he's got his hands underneath the gait belt and then he's going to instruct me on three to lift. On three we're going to lift, are you ready? Yes! One, two, three, and now I'm going to reach towards the wheelchair and at this point I'm going to pivot on my right reach to the wheelchair and lower me down.

04:57 Great! so now I'm safely in the wheelchair. Now at this point if necessary I can go ahead and remove my gait belt.