Monthly Archives: June 2015

Patient Handling – The Risky Business of Nursing

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A recent study has found that health care professionals are the group most likely to be injured at work. The CDC, the US’s health protection agency, found that patient handling was the main cause of these injuries. Studies have also found that manual handling accidents account for half of all sickness absence for NHS staff, leading to 1.5 million lost working days costing the NHS £400 million per year.

Everyday, thousands of nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists and other healthcare professionals perform patient handling tasks. This may be general handling tasks, such as transferring a patient from a bed to a wheelchair, or during rehabilitation exercises. These physically demanding tasks can be made easier with the right tools, making it safer for patients and caregivers.

Many healthcare professionals are already using Dycem Non-Slip every day to make patient handling and movement easier and safer for all. The unique gripping properties of our Dycem non-slip products can help enable health care workers to move clients safely and keep them in place, avoiding the need for repositioning. Dycem Non-Slip products are available in a range of colours, perfect for providing visual cues and contrasting colours for those with visual impairments.

Safe patient handling with Dycem Non-Slip
Safe patient handling with Dycem Non-Slip

Popular ways that Dycem is used to help with patient handling include:

• Using on the floor to provide grip and to prevent feet giving way
• Helping with sit-to-stand activities
• Using on wheelchair footrests and seats to prevent clients slipping down
• Placing under a wobble board and under foam for balance activities so that clients don’t slide and fall
• Using Dycem as a marker on the floor for patients to walk in tandem gait
• Placing under a sliding board and transferring patients from bed to beside commode
• Using on parallel bars to provide extra grip, stability and visual markers
• Using Dycem to keep hold of patients when mobilising, providing excellent grip for hard to hold onto areas.
• Using Dycem reel material on grab bars for transfers
• Using on beds and under pillows to prevent slipping and help with positioning
• Using Dycem for upper extremity weight baring exercise to help hands to stay in place

Training is effective in preventing injuries and tools like Dycem can certainly help provide stability and safer handling. We would love to hear any ideas or comments on how Dycem is helping you with patient handling.

View the Dycem Non-Slip product range here .

Study sources:
http://www.apta.org/PTinMotion/News/2015/6/24/PatientHandlingInjuries/
http://www.leicspart.nhs.uk/Library/PatientHandlingUpdateHandout2012.pdf

Dycem Non-Slip to Exhibit at the COT Conference and Exhibition

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COT logo
College of Occupational Therapists Exhibition 2015

The College of Occupational Therapists will be holding their 39th annual conference and exhibition 30th June -2nd July, in the Brighton Centre on Brighton’s famous promenade.

The Dycem Non-Slip team are looking forward to exhibiting at this year’s event for the third year running.

We see it as a golden opportunity to meet with thought leaders from the world of occupational therapy; an extremely varied and ever-evolving profession.

The Conference programme is full of motivating speakers and topics to improve clinical practice.  Dycem looks forward to hearing delegate’s inspiring stories about how the non-slip products improve their clients’ lives.

We’ll be setting-up at stand number 1 in the main exhibition hall, spreading awareness of the Dycem Non-Slip range and selling our products from the stand.  Make sure you keep an eye-out for some exclusive exhibition offers!

Keep Calm OT coaster
‘Keep Calm I’m an Occupational Therapist’ Coasters

In previous years, our ‘Keep Calm I’m an Occupational Therapist’ coasters have been a huge success with OT’s. We’ll make sure we bring plenty of these to give away this year, as well as goodie bags containing, brochures, pens and discount codes for an extra 10% off the Dycem web store!

Occupational Therapist, Jen Cave-Ayland will also be joining us. She will be on-hand to demonstrate the versatility of Dycem Non-Slip and offer advice on using it as a tool for therapy.

Be sure to come and visit if you are attending and tell us how you use Dycem for a chance to win a special prize in a competition we will be running during the show.

Also, if you would like to get in touch with us to set up a meeting during the exhibition, contact Eva Paraskevaides on 0117 9548 701 or email nonslip(at)dycem.com.

We look forward to seeing you there!

How Occupational Therapists Use Dycem – AOTA 2015 Competition Winner Announced!

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Dycem bundle prize winner
Here is our winner Heidi with her Dycem Non-Slip prize bundle

At the American Occupational Therapy Association’s annual Conference this year, our roving reporter asked the Occupational Therapists how they use Dycem to make their day-to-day jobs easier.

We collected all of their responses using a video camera and voice recorder and them into a competition.
The prize up for grabs was $200 of Dycem Non-Slip products (in the colour of their choice) and an iPad mini!

We got lots of responses from many enthusiastic OT’s and health professionals and gathered them together into a video, which you can see here;

We then selected a winner at random, Heidi Carpenter, and she chose to receive her Dycem Non-Slip prize in Lime Green.
Here is what she had to say about winning;

“I am so thrilled. I think Dycem is such an awesome product to use in therapy. Thank you so much.”

Congratulations to Heidi!

For you chance to win, look out for the Dycem Non-Slip stand at the next AOTA conference which will be held in Chicago next year.

‘How do you Use Dycem?’ Naidex 2015 Competition Winner Announced!

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Christina prizes
Here is our winner, Christina with her prizes

At the Naidex National Conference this year, we asked attendees how they use Dycem Non-Slip to make their lives easier.

We gathered together all of their responses using a voice recorder or video camera (if they were feeling brave) and entered them into a competition.

The prize up for grabs was £100 worth of Dycem Non-Slip products (in the colour of their choice) and an Ipad Mini!

We had lots of entries and found lots of interesting uses for Dycem Non-Slip, including using the reel material to secure spools on a knitting loom, to simple things like using Dycem under a set top box, to keep it from falling off the top of the telly.

Our lucky winner, Christina Theobald, was selected at random and chose to receive her Dycem prize range in silver. Here is what she had to say about winning;

“I am absolutely delighted and surprised to have won. I’d forgotten I’d entered a competition because I was busy being nervous about being filmed. The Dycem will come in handy, as I like to demonstrate it to people and I like the silver because it’s a non-clinical colour.”

Congratulations to Christina. To see Christina’s entry, plus a selection of others, check out this video of how Dycem Non-Slip can help people live independently;

For another chance to win a Dycem prize bundle, look out for our cameras and roving reporter at the COT Annual Exhibition and Conference at Brighton Centre, Brighton 30th June- 2nd July 2015.

Dycem’s Non-Slip mats and reels a ‘must have’ gadget for caregivers

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We are delighted to read that Dycem’s Non-Slip mats and reels have been branded as a ‘must have’ gadget by a family caregiver with over 30 years’ experience.  Writing for the over 50s membership organisation AARP, family caregiver Amy Goyer praised Dycem’s excellent non-slip properties for its myriad of uses;

  1. Stopping plates ‘sliding around’ with a Dycem Non-Slip mat which enabled her Mother to eat more easily following a stroke. Her Dycem ReelFather also uses it to stop his plate sliding around.
  2. Preventing the family dog from moving its bowl when eating or drinking, preventing spillages of food or water.
  3. Avoiding accidents as the Non-Slip properties of a Dycem mat also make dog bowl ‘virtually trip-proof’ as it ‘sticks’ to the tile.
  4. Make dining and cooking easier by cutting and wrapping Dycem’s Non-Slip material around utensil handles or placing underneath a chopping board to ‘keep it from slipping’:

I particularly recommend Dycem, a nonslip material used by many occupational and physical therapists. It comes in different sizes and colors; it even comes in rolls, so you can cut it to your preferred size, wrap it around utensil handles or use it under a cutting board to keep it from slipping.

Occupational Therapists Give Us 38 Uses for Dycem

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OT uses for Dycem
Occupational Therapy Uses for Dycem

Here at Dycem Non-Slip, we always look forward to exhibiting at the AOTA Conference and Expo as it’s a great chance to meet with Occupational Therapists who are enthusiastic about Dycem and how it helps them in their work.

At this year’s event in Nashville, we gathered together a list of uses for Dycem Non-Slip in an occupational therapy setting. Here are some of the best uses for Dycem we heard from the AOTA 2015 attendees;

Dycem in a Clinical Setting

  1. “I’m a hand therapist; I actually use it for scar tissue, to soften up the scars after tendons surgery.”
  2. “I use Dycem all the time on the grab bar, so that the people who don’t have the strength to hang on can use it to hang on to the grab bar to do transfers.”
  3. “I use Dycem all the time for my weight baring clients, to make sure that they don’t slip or fall and they NEVER do, it’s great. I also use it for standing.”
  4. “I use Dycem for when a patient does sit to stand from the wheelchair up to standing with the rolling walker and it supports their feet. Sometimes their feet slip because the person has suffered a stroke and I have to place their foot to stop it from slipping”.
  5. “I’ve used Dycem, just a roll of Dycem, in rehab a lot where you can cut pieces to size. It helps with keeping seating position in place or just for dynamic stuff like armchair positioning especially for neural rehab.”
  6. “To help a paediatric patient with fine motor co-ordination work.”
  7. “Dycem is one of the most versatile tools we have in therapy, we can use it to make grips, and we can use it in our day to day practice to help hold limbs and position feet where they’re supposed to be. It’s marvellous for seating as well as adapting other equipment.”
  8. “I use it to hold my interactive metronome down.”
  9. “I use the self-adhesive Dycem to line finger splints, so they don’t slip. Sometimes finger splints will migrate forward and when they need to wash the splint, they can also wash the Dycem.”
  10. “I use Dycem for rehabilitation, especially with my stroke patients with feeding. It builds grip, offers table support and it’s good for wheelchair adjustments, such as breaks. We’re not able to modify people’s chairs so we have to use other means to adapt.”
  11. “We use Dycem to keep the plates from sliding for clients with fine motor difficulties and for horse therapy (hippotherapy) we can use it on the horses to keep the clients body from sliding on saddles and keep them centred.”
  12. “I use Dycem on horse reigns for my clients when performing hippotherapy.

Dycem in the Home

  1. “I use Dycem for my exercise bike, to hold it in place.”
  2. “I actually I just moved into a new place and the toilet was wobbly, so I couldn’t put anything on to it. I took all of my things, my toiletries and I put them on a tray and I put a little sample size of Dycem under the tray and now it doesn’t slip off anymore.”
  3. “To hold a cutting board in place in the kitchen.”
  4. “I use it to hold the tower in place when I play Jenga.”
  5. “I use it to keep a sewing machine from sliding.”
  6. “We use it to keep someone’s remote from sliding off the table.”

Dycem On-the-Go

  1. “I use Dycem in wheelchairs to stop patients sliding out of their seats.”
  2. “I actually use it play racket ball and tennis with, I use regular grips that I buy at the store that don’t last as long or grip as well. I wrap it around like a regular grip tape, you just make a spiral out of it and it stays on forever and it actually has ‘tackier’ properties and I don’t have to wear a racket glove with it, so it’s great.”
  3. “I use Dycem with my Grandmother to provide a non-slip surface as she gets up and walks out of the restaurant.”
  4. “I give the small circle piece out for people to take out with them to restaurants to put under a plate when they eat.”

Dycem for Gaining Independence

  1. “I work in a facility where we use Dycem all the time for positioning and self-feeding and helping people to improve their independence.”
  2. “I use Dycem Bottle Openers for my arthritic hands, to open my medicine.”
  3. “We use Dycem for colour contrast as well as stabilisation with one-handed techniques like brushing teeth.”
  4. “I use Dycem Jar Openers with amputee patients or patients with arthritis. It helps them to open doors.”
  5. “I would use Dycem for people with low strength who want wash a pot or pan.”
  6. “You can use Dycem Mats to put paper on, so people who only have one hand can use it to write.”
  7. “I use Dycem to help with medication management, to stabilise the pill organiser.”
  8. “We use Dycem for everything. I use it primarily with spinal cord patients; it keeps their cell phones from sliding when they’re trying to type.”
  9. “My best use for Dycem is when I cut a piece into two- inch squares and I put it under the chair for a lady who when she stood up, the chair slid backwards. This was causing safety problem for her, but thanks to Dycem, the patient reduced her fall risk significantly.”

Dycem in Education/Learning

  1. “I have a student who likes to slide out of his chair, so I put the Dycem in his chair so he cannot slide and it works wonderfully.”
  2. “I use it for feeding to make sure bowls and plates don’t slip.
  3. “To stabilise papers on desk.”
  4. “I’m a student so I use Dycem in school. In eating competency class we had to use the Dycem to show how a patient can keep their plate on the table.”
  5. “I use the self-stick Dycem to put on the back of clipboards for students. So that they can move the clipboard wherever they’re going and it doesn’t slip.”

We would like to thank everyone we met at AOTA this year for their best uses for Dycem Non-Slip. And if you have any others to add to the list, please share with us your ideas below.

Dycem ‘Does the Magic for You’

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Dycem Yellow Kitchenware
Dycem has a range of applications for the home

For those with visual impairments, Dycem Non-Slip is a fantastic aid to secure household objects in place, making them easy to find and use.

For example, putting a non-slip mat under your alarm clock will prevent it from slipping off the bedside table if you accidently hit the ‘snooze’ button with a little too much force on a weekday morning.

This use for Dycem, along with many others, were mentioned in a recent interview for Infosound– a charity that offers impartial advice to those with visual impairments. The interview featured Lesley Duroe from the RNIB, where she discusses the versatility of the Dycem non-slip range;

“Dycem is a non-slip material, so basically it secures a cup, a plate, anything that you want to make sure stays stable on a tray or a table- it will actually do the magic for you.”

In this five minute interview segment, which you can listen to in full here, they also discuss products such as the reel material, as well as our non-slip cup holders and mats.

Dycem yellow cup holder
Yellow cup holder prevents slips and spills

Dycem product application ideas taken from the interview;

  • For those with blindness or partial vision, a glass of water on a surface can be difficult to see and potentially dangerous if knocked over. Using a Dycem cup holder will not only provide a visual cue, it will also hold your glass in place securely.
  • A non-slip mat is perfect for use on a TV tray, as it holds to both the tray and the underside of your plate.
  • A roll of our reel material can be easily cut to size using just normal household scissors. You could even cut a thin piece of reel material and attach it to a door handle- to provide a visual cue and stable gripping surface.
  • Our non-slip range comes in highly visible colours such as red and yellow. You can also buy products in forest green, lime, pink, silver, blue, black and white, which gives you plenty of options for tying Dycem in with the rest of your home’s décor.
  • Dycem non-slip does not feel sticky to the touch, despite its very non-slip properties. This means that if you’re blind or partially sighted, you don’t have to worry about objects actually sticking to the non-slip material and therefore making objects difficult to pick up and use.
  • To clean any of our non-slip products, simply wash with warm, soapy water, leave it to dry and your Dycem will be as good as new. Alternatively, use one of our Dycem cleaning wipes for instant clean and reuse.

To see the rest of our Dycem range, check out the Dycem shop.

And if you have any thoughts on the benefits of Dycem for the blind or partially sighted, share with us your comments.