During repositioning tasks, excessive forces are imposed Further supporting the evidence gained in laboratory studies and field investigations examining the causes of lower back pain in nurses have demonstrated the task of repositioning of patients in bed to be one of the highest risk activities undertaken by health-care workers. At a large tertiary care hospital, the task of lifting or pulling a patient up in bed was the leading activity reported as a cause of back pain. Results demonstrated that 48% of nurses reported the task of lifting or pulling a patient up in bed caused them to suffer back pain. Lifting or pulling a patient up in bed was also reported as a commonly required activity for those nurses working in medical/surgical units and in critical care units. Some 40% of critical care unit nurses, 34% of medical ward nurses and 27% of surgical ward nurses reported having to lift or pull a patient up in bed more than six times per shift. In England, a large cross-sectional survey of 2405 nurses employed by a group of teaching hospitals reported manually moving a patient in bed was one of the highest risk activities for back pain for the nurses surveyed. The responses indicated that 51% of nurses who were required to do 10 or more repositioning tasks in a work shift reported back pain (270 out of 530)