Chapter 7: Moving and positioning
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Positioning a patient: sitting up in bed
Evidence‐based approaches
Rationale
Indications
Patients should be encouraged to sit up in bed (Figure 7.2) regularly if their medical condition prevents them from sitting out in a chair. If the patient is unable to participate fully in the procedure, manual handling equipment should be used to help achieve the desired position. Attention should also be given to the sitting posture. Poor posture is one of the most common causes of low back pain, which is frequently brought on by sitting for a long time in a poor position (Perry [101]).
Figure 7.2 Sitting up in bed.
Contraindications
After a lumbar puncture, patients should lie flat to prevent dural headache in accordance with local policy.
Spinal instability
Refer to the section ‘Moving and positioning a patient with actual or suspected spinal cord compression or spinal cord injury’ below and see Procedure guideline 7.13: Log rolling a patient with suspected or confirmed cervical spinal instability (above T6).
Procedure guideline 7.2
