Note: Your progress in watching these videos WILL NOT be tracked. These training videos are the same videos you will experience when you take the full Office Ergonomics program. You may begin the training for free at any time to start officially tracking your progress toward your certificate of completion.
Current Category:
Injury Prevention in the Office:
- Why Pro Ergonomics (01:42)
- Repetitive Stress Injury Prevention: Proper Ergonomics for Computer Work (03:49)
- Repetitive Stress Injury Prevention: Ergonomic Keyboard Position (06:47)
- Ergonomic Monitor Position: Distance From Monitor (04:03)
- Ergonomic Monitor Position: Monitor Height (05:56)
- Ergonomic Desk Setup: Two Monitors (03:36)
- Ergonomic Desk Setup: Document Holders, Keyboards, and Phones (04:23)
- Ergonomic Position for Computer Work (04:22)
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Repetitive Stress Injury Prevention: Ergonomic Keyboard Position
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(gentle music) You know, not too many years ago, when I was on the street as a paramedic, I suffered some of these
repetitive stress problems, and I can tell you, living with chronic pain is no fun at all, and those of you who have
had it could agree with me, but this is one of my favorite segments in any type of OSHA
health and safety program, and that's how to prevent it from happening in the first place. This next segment that
we're gonna be looking at is talking about taking those
breaks we mentioned earlier, and how to actually do some of those stretching break exercises, so take the breaks, and while
you're taking the breaks, stand up. Stand and stretch and move around. This stretching and moving around provides rest and allows
the muscles enough time to actually begin to circulate blood flow, to bring oxygen in,
take carbon dioxide out. It gets lactic acid pulled
out of the muscle fibers, and brings nutrition back
into those muscle fibers, tendons, and ligaments. The tendons and ligaments and cartilage do not circulate blood very well anyway, so you can image how bad it is when we take a lot of
time in between stretches and in between movement. It's only gonna make them even more stiff and less able to be stretched, so if you're doing the
types of activities where, you know, you're using your hands a lot, substitute some of these
keystrokes for mousing tasks, such as a control or a command shortcut, especially if your job is
highly mouse intensive. If you're having to do
things like stapling, alternate your tasks whenever possible. Mix in some non-computer
related tasks into the work day. This always encourages body movement and the use of different muscle groups. Remember, moving and stretching, keeping your ligaments,
tendons, cartilage, and your muscle fibers stretched and open, triggering that vascular dilation and increasing the heart
rate by deep breathing, stretching, and moving around brings back in the circulation
that's gonna be required in order to prevent long term problems with soft tissue injuries. Now, in addition to
taking occasional breaks and changing up your tasks, where you place the keyboard and mouse will greatly reduce your risk
of repetitive stress injuries. Remember, a keyboard or a pointer mouse that's too close or too far away may cause you to assume
a really awkward posture, such as reaching with
your arm, leaning forward, and then having that extreme elbow angle. You should really place the keyboard at a comfortable distance
that will maintain a neutral body posture. Elbows should be about the
same height as the keyboard, and your elbows should hang comfortably to the sides of your body. Your shoulders should be relaxed, and your wrists should not
bend any more up or down to either side during the keyboard use. They really should just be able
to stay relaxed and neutral the whole time you're using that keyboard. In addition to the keyboard distance, you can reduce a lot
of awkward wrist angles by adjusting the chair height
or the work surface height. Lowering or raising the keyboard or chair to achieve a neutral wrist posture is an essential way to prevent
these postural strains. A keyboard tray may be needed if the work surface or chair
can't be properly adjusted. Remember, if everything that you do to reorganize your workstation has been done, but you still cannot avoid
these postural strains, this is gonna be the time
that you need to talk to a supervisor or an employer about getting some work engineer controls, and those could include new desks, new chairs, or some type
of ergonomic adjunct that's gonna be able to help you to get into a good neutral posture. Wrist rests can also help
reduce awkward angles. Your hands should be able to move freely and be elevated above your wrist and the palm rest while you're typing, so when resting on the pad, you should really be able to contact the heel of your palm of
your hand, not your wrist. Match the wrist support
to the width and height and slope of the front
edge of the keyboard, keeping in mind that the goal is to keep your wrist postures
as straight as possible. Elevate the back or the
front of your keyboard to achieve a neutral wrist posture. You know, one special note
I wanted to add to this is that we're seeing a lot
more touch pad surfaces on laptops as well as even adjunct pads that are getting away from the roller ball, as well as the
infrared tracking system. There's even mistakes we
can make with that, though. It's really important for us to understand that if we're working on a laptop or even on an adjunct touch pad surface, maybe you're even in graphics design and you're using something
that's a lot like a digital notepad or tablet, it's still gonna be really
important to remember to keep your wrists,
joints, hands, arms, elbows, in natural, neutral positions. So, if we're resting our
wrists or the pads of our palms on the actually notepad or on the laptop while we're using our
fingers to actually do the touch pad functions,
this still could lead to some type of postural strain, and then lead to some of
those neurological deficits, the tendonitis, the carpal
tunnel, and some of those types of problems that
we talked about earlier. So, keeping our hands off the surface and lightly touching with
the tips of the fingers or the pads of the fingers, and again, a neutral, a very natural position,
avoiding strikes and things that are unnatural are
all going to help us to avoid some common
injuries and common symptoms related to those types
of postural strains. The whole point of this ergonomic series is to help all of us
avoid serious problems, needless pain, and premature injuries. You know, reducing the repetition by properly arranging the work
station and its components, taking breaks frequently, especially when you
start to feel that type of repetitive stress symptom,
is gonna be essential. Looking away, stretching, getting up, taking a walk, changing
up your work tasks, they can all still be very
efficient and effective and productive in your workplace, and these brief pauses
provide time for the muscles and the tendons to recover,
and for you not only to go home as healthy as when you came,
but maybe even healthier.
Information on preventing repetitive stress injuries like tennis elbow (epicondylitis), carpal tunnel syndrome, tendinitis, reflex sympathetic dystrophy, and ganglion cyst.
