Episode Details

In this episode of the Surgical Ergonomics Podcast, Dr. Geeta Lal discusses one of the questions she hears most often: How do I get my institution to take surgical ergonomics seriously?

While individual strategies such as improving posture, stretching, exercising, and taking microbreaks are important, sustainable surgical careers require more than individual effort. The workplace environment, equipment, workflow, and institutional culture all play an important role in supporting the physical health and longevity of surgeons and proceduralists.

Dr. Lal shares five practical strategies for building institutional support for surgical ergonomics and discusses why ergonomics should be viewed as an occupational and workforce sustainability issue—not simply an individual wellness responsibility.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

• Change how you frame the problem — Move the conversation beyond wellness and toward occupational risk, career longevity, workforce sustainability, and retention.
• Bring local data — Learn how collecting information about the ergonomic challenges experienced by your own surgeons, proceduralists, trainees, and OR teams can help demonstrate that ergonomics is a workplace issue.
• Find partners — Identify people across your institution who can help address ergonomic challenges, including OR leadership, occupational health, physical and occupational therapy, nursing, workplace safety, and quality and safety teams.
• Start with a specific problem — Rather than immediately proposing a comprehensive ergonomics program, begin with one concrete issue, assessment, pilot project, equipment evaluation, or educational intervention.
• Don't stop at education — Understand why education is important but cannot compensate for poorly designed workspaces, equipment, instruments, or workflows, and why the goal should be to make the work environment function better for the people in it.

Resource Mentioned

Developing Specialty-Specific Workplace Standards for Sustainable Surgical Careers

This episode references the work surrounding specialty-specific workplace standards and the importance of creating conditions that support sustainable surgical careers.

Read the article in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons

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If you found this episode valuable, please share it with a colleague or your perioperative team to help bring greater awareness to the role of ergonomics in career longevity. If you're enjoying the podcast, I'd be grateful if you left a review on your favorite podcast platform. Your reviews help others discover the show and support our mission of improving the health and longevity of surgeons and proceduralists worldwide.