In all of our research studies, the involvement of people with first hand experience in providing care at home is essential. We combine your expertise and ours in order to identify challenges experienced by home care providers and develop tools and methods to make providing care safer for providers, which also benefits care recipients.
Our current research projects:
Enhanced Interactive Virtual Occupational Safety Training: We are working with home healthcare workers, agency managers, and a team from the Ohio Council for Home Care & Hospice (OCHCH) to develop an enhanced training program to help home healthcare workers to detect hazards in their clients’ homes that pose a health and safety risk to the home healthcare worker. The training program also provides information for effectively managing these hazards, including how to speak with clients and family members about hazard mitigation. We are currently (Fall 2024) recruiting home healthcare providers and agency managers to participate in this study. Please click the link to the appropriate recruitment flyer to learn more about this study: flyer for home care providers ; flyer for agency managers
Opportunities for ergonomics in home care: The goal of the project is to identify low cost equipment that may be effective in reducing the physical effort required when assisting clients with tasks such as bathing, transfers, and toilet hygiene.
While patient-handling assistive equipment is utilized in healthcare settings, it is much less likely to be available in home care settings. A recent report found “little literature or research on the prevalence of the use and effectiveness of assistive technologies and home modifications for lifting, transferring, and repositioning for reducing home care worker injuries” (Brunskill & Wysocki, 2022).
We are currently (June 2023) recruiting home healthcare workers to participate in this study. To learn more, please view this recruitment flyer…
Completed research:
The Home Healthcare Conversations app: We worked with home healthcare workers to develop an app that provide examples of how to use various communications strategies to successfully communicate with clients about their care provider’s personal safety & health concerns while working in the client’s home.
Learn more about this project and about accessing the app through the AppStore and GooglePlay.
Virtual Simulation Training System: This “serious game” training system was developed to train home healthcare professionals (aides, nurses, PTs, OTs, etc.) in the identification of, assessment of, and response to health and safety hazards that pose a risk of injury to them while in a client’s home. The program engages users in a search to find and learn more about slip/trip/lift hazards, electrical & fire hazards, and environmental hazards that may be in a client’s home. This program runs on computers that run a Windows operating system; it can be downloaded from this site.
Publications from our research (ordered by year of publication):
Amini Pay, N., Sommerich, C.M., Lavender, S.A., 2021. Assessment of alternative methods for informal caregivers to perform patient repositioning tasks. Applied Ergonomics 93. access here
Polivka, B.J., Anderson, S., Lavender, S.A., Sommerich, C.M., Stredney, D.L., Wills, C.E., Darragh, A.R., 2019. Efficacy and Usability of a Virtual Simulation Training System for Health and Safety Hazards Encountered by Healthcare Workers. Games Health J 8, 121-128. access here
Lavender, S.A., Polivka, B.J., Darragh, A.R., Sommerich, C.M., Stredney, D.L., Wills, C.E., 2019. Evaluating Home Healthcare Workers’ Safety Hazard Detection Ability Using Virtual Simulation. Home Healthc Now 37, 265-272.
Darragh, A.R., Lavender, S., Polivka, B., Sommerich, C.M., Wills, C.E., Hittle, B.A., Chen, R., Stredney, D.L., 2016. Gaming Simulation as Health and Safety Training for Home Healthcare Workers. Clinical simulation in nursing 12, 328-335. access here
Wills, C.E., Polivka, B.J., Darragh, A., Lavender, S., Sommerich, C., Stredney, D., 2016. “Making Do” Decisions: How Home Healthcare Personnel Manage Their Exposure to Home Hazards. West J Nurs Res 38, 411-426. access here
Polivka, B., Wills, C., Darragh, A.R., Lavender, S., Sommerich, C., Stredney, D., 2015. Environmental Health and Safety Hazards Experienced by Home Healthcare Providers: A Room-by-Room Analysis. Workplace Health Saf 63, 512-522; quiz 523. access here
Darragh, A.R., Sommerich, C.M., Lavender, S.A., Tanner, K.J., Vogel, K., Campo, M., 2015. Musculoskeletal Discomfort, Physical Demand, and Caregiving Activities in Informal Caregivers. Journal of applied gerontology : the official journal of the Southern Gerontological Society 34, 734-760. access here
Czuba, L.R., Sommerich, C.M., Lavender, S.A., 2012. Ergonomic and Safety Risk Factors in Home Health Care: Assessment and exploration of alternative interventions. Work 42, 341-353. view abstract here (please contact us to request a copy of this paper)