2008 Augusta Zadow Scholarships Winners

2008 Winners

Pinnacle Workplace Consultants
BreastScreen SA

The scholarship is awarded to Pinnacle Workplace Consultants in partnership with The Briars Special Early Learning Centre to undertake a project to minimise musculo-skeletal sprains and strains.

The project centres on developing and implementing a manual handling strategy and procedures for high-risk activities within the Early Special Needs sector.

Musculoskeletal sprains and strains have been identified as a major area of concern in Early Special Education, an industry in which the majority of employees are female. The aim of the project is to reduce the severity and frequency of injuries to staff when assisting children.

The methodology for the programme will be based on the French Manutention Method of Manual Handling. Based on martial arts, abseiling and weightlifting principles, the method is relevant to current risk management techniques and a ?no-lift? approach to manual handling.

This scholarship is awarded to BreastScreen SA to undertake a project on Risk Management Techniques for Digital Mammography.

BreastScreen SA employs fifty female Radiographers who perform mammograms at six clinics and three mobile units across South Australia. BreastScreen SA also provides training for practitioners from private practices and public hospitals.

The highly skilled women who provide mammography services are susceptible to a range of injuries, due to the extremely repetitive nature of the work they perform.

While acknowledged that traditional analogue or film-based technology poses a high degree of risk of overuse injury to operators, little is known about these risks in the emerging field of digital mammography technology.

Under the guidance of Georgina Upton and Bronwyn Knight, the aim of the project is to:

• identify the occupational health, safety and welfare risks involved with digital mammography technology
• develop techniques to overcome those risks
• produce a DVD to assist Radiographers in the safe ergonomic use of the technology, and
• ensure information regarding injury prevention strategies is disseminated to all users.

It is anticipated the project will be completed towards the end of 2009, coinciding with the gradual rollout of digital screening technology.