How a lack of assistive equipment can be a barrier to mobility in the ICU

Despite compelling evidence of the benefits of early mobility in the ICU, adoption remains slow. Many ICU’s who promote an early mobility culture focus their efforts on in bed mobility activities and extend their practice less frequently to out of bed exercise and rehabilitation.

A recent article⁶ examined data from 40 studies reporting a number of barriers to early mobility. Those identified varied across ICU’s and within disciplines, were dependant on the ICU patient population, setting, and ICU culture. Most barriers were deemed modifiable and appropriate strategies were identified.

Perceived risk of injury to patients and staff is an important consideration and often acts as a barrier to implementation of early mobility and rehabilitation activities. One common barrier voiced by ICU clinicians relates to the lack of equipment available within their ICU to help facilitate early mobility safely and often for their patients. Having access to appropriate equipment and training to support early mobility strategies could help improve adoption.

The process of sitting on the edge of the bed is usually a key first step in the out of bed mobility process. This can at times be labour intensive, particularly for patients who are obese, of low arousal or with profound ICU-Acquired Weakness, where it may take multiple members of staff to transfer the patient to the edge of the bed. Alternatively, factors such as a poorly tolerated airway, multiple attachments including positional femoral lines, low dose inotropic support, and postural hypotension may raise safety concerns around the process of moving a patient to sitting on the edge of the bed.

As patients improve, progression can be made to more active transfers out of bed. This can be facilitated by utilising equipment such as hoists or lateral transfer devices initially, until assisted standing transfers to the chair can be achieved.

As the patient continues to progress, they may be able to achieve a full standing position but not quite have the ability to take any steps. This can often be a frustrating time for the patient and place a risk for staff in any subsequent attempts at stepping to a chair. In this situation a mobility solution to allow patients to stand and be transferred to a chair with minimal caregiver assistance would be required.

For more information please download the solutions brochure below or go to the dedicated early mobility section.

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5 Cameron S, Ball I, Cepinskas G, Choong K, Doherty TJ, Ellis CG, Martin CM, Mele TS, Sharpe M, Shoemaker JK, et al. Early mobilization in the critical care unit: a review of adult and pediatric literature. J Crit Care 2015;30:664–672                                               

6 Dubb R, Nydahl P, Hermes C et al Barriers and Strategies for Early Mobilization of Patients in Intensive Care Units. Ann Am Thorac Soc Vol 13, No 5, pp 724–730, May 2016