Lifting is the major cause of musculoskeletal injuries among staff performing patient or resident handling tasks. The aim of this study was to explore manual resident handling in the flooding situation. Method: A retrospective survey by reviewing snapshots of the 2011 flooding situation in Thailand. The Rapid Entire Body Assessment technique was used to assess lifting posture in manual resident handling. Results and discussion: Several evidences were found including characteristics of victims, helpers, handling methods, machines, environment, and organizations. This may be applicable for the implementation of ergonomics intervention. All methods of resident handling were at medium to very high risk level. Further investigation is needed for the adoption of new ergonomics intervention to reduce musculoskeletal injuries during resident evacuation in flooding and other crisis situations.

Keywords: Ergonomics intervention, Musculoskeletal injuries, Manual resident handling, Evacuation management.