What is the most strenuous labor (job) you have ever had to do at home, work, or for others?

Nursing, believe it or not, can be VERY strenuous. You and this very heavy patient that needs to be helped & no one is available. Dragging equipment around, bending & kneeling, walking.
Cleaning can be about equal in strenuous depending on how dirty the house/room is.

Probably lugging those little half sized bar fridges around. That would be at work. From 1999 to 2001 I was resident custodian at a facility for street kids. Each room came equipped with a fridge like that. Often when the kids moved out, the fridge would be trashed. They would crank it up to maximum cooling and never bother to defrost the freezer. The freezer door would pop off from the gradual pressure of the expanding ice. I saw one that was almost solid, the entire fridge practically was an enormous block of ice. Naturally when it goes that far the whole inside of the fridge is trashed. The fittings snap off...

The worst one looked like someone set off a small explosion with crap and yoghurt. Then there was the girl who moved out and left some take away containers with food scraps in her fridge. One of them also contained a used sanitary product. Hmm...

That's where I was working when I first discovered Survey Central!

> Nursing, believe it or not, can be VERY strenuous.

I believe back injuries are the most common type of serious injury among nurses. I totally believe it's strenuous. I also think nurses are ridiculously under-paid and under-valued.

Amen and ergonomics baby!

Moving from LA to SC. Loading & unloading the truck with on myself & my SO. Then I turned around drove to FL & back in less than 10 days. I thought I was gonna die after I finally got back to SC. Then less than 2 wks later I came up to OH to help my dad out. He's been sick. And I am still here and going back to SC next week. I've been traveling way too much!!

Tiling

Umm, picking up the huge piles of papers at the paper shop I work at on Saturday mornings. My arms ache for hours after.

I've worked as volunteer labour on construction sites with Habitat for Humanity - the toughest was carrying pans of concrete, sand and rocks on my head, on a building site in India, in temperatures of 39 degrees C and higher.

I now work on the nursing staff in a hospital. Moving patients around can be incredibly strenuous. My upper body strength has increased massively.

I spent a summer building pasture fence, planting roses, trimming bushes, digging out and replanting a garden, removing sod, pruning fruit trees, taking care of two horses, taking care of a herd of sheep, mowing a one-acre lawn.... and anything else my demented pedophile stepfather could think of to keep me working outside while he sat around in the air-conditioned house.

For two years I was the delivery coordinator for the former Eagle Hardware. Cabinet orders, stoves, refrigerators, washers, dryers.... I had to move them all by hand, and sometimes they were stacked on one another.

Does childbirth (labor) count?

Moving to another place.

Going over and cleaning the church building and I do volunteer work every Thanksgiving helping to serve the meals to seniors at the nursing home here in town and I eat a dinner with them, and I help my boss at work in many way's doing whatever she asks of me like cleaning the floor or doing some work outside

I think that childbirth (labor) does count trying to deliver that baby is very strenuous indeed urgggg on the mother

And yard work can be very hard in the Summer time

Truck driving over the road, cross country, underpaid, sitting for 12 hours a day, driving 11 hours a day, sleeping in a vehicle, showering at public facilities, using public restrooms, lack of sexual pleasure, staying awake all night, sleeping different hours that vary by loads, sometimes not sleeping at all and driving all day and night, living in different weather, one day your freezing to death in Washington snow and next day your baking to death in 120 degree dry heat in Mojave Desert, having to eat out all the time, sometimes not eating at all, staring out a windshield all day, driving sick where your vomiting out the window as you drive a truck through Chicago during rush hour, theres no time off except once a month, you can't call in sick because you need the money

Army, definitely army, infantry crap. Digging trenches, surviving for weeks on end with hard rations and 2-3 hours sleep, going on combat patrols in the middle of the night in the cold rain, having your brain messed with by impromptu attacks and seemingly useless crap. Made me the individual I am today, though, and for that I have the Canadian Forces to thank. Hoo-ah!!!

> I've worked as volunteer labour on construction sites with Habitat
> for Humanity - the toughest was carrying pans of concrete, sand and
> rocks on my head, on a building site in India, in temperatures of
> 39 degrees C and higher.
>
> I now work on the nursing staff in a hospital. Moving patients around
> can be incredibly strenuous. My upper body strength has increased
> massively.

Excellent! Way to go, Biggles!!!

> Does childbirth (labor) count?


Hell yes, it does!!! That is the epitome of strenuous labour, no?

Well then, that would be mine!

Let's see.... mucking out stalls I guess.

The most strenuous labor was Labor in itself "Childbirth"...you use every muscle in your body that you know of, and find muscles that you didn't even know existed!
You fall asleep between labor pains when you are pushing because each push takes every ounce of strength that you can muster, it is physically and mentally exhausting!
The pain is unnameable! BUT, as soon as your baby is born, all that pain is INSTANTLY GONE! Your completely exhausted but your NOT in pain. And it's all WORTH it!

Moving large furniture.

Working on a tree crew cutting down trees. Heavy lifting, getting cut all the time, sawdust sticking to your sweat.

Stacking hay.

Yes, your body has it all figured out. Endorphins sent out just as you see your new infant for the first time causing the beautiful permenant bond called maternal instinct and the pain is whooshed away! You also get nice endorphins while breast feeding. Nature's way of tricking you into keeping the baby alive. That didn't come out how I meant it.

When I saw a video of childbirth in nursing school and I learned what 'the ring of fire' was, it pretty much sealed the deal I'd been going with already for a long time, that is, no kids and definitely no childbirth.

On a physical level, it may have been serving as an Ordinary Deck Hand, and then Able Seaman on the sweep deck of a minesweeper while serving in the British RNR. In terms of psychological strain though, acting takes some beating, because no matter how you feel, you have no option but to get on that stage night after night until the run is over and give your utmost, because the audience has paid to see you.

Helping my mom rearrange furniture.

Giving birth. There is a reason that it's called labor.

You do know that there are correct ways to bend (at the knee) with patients. I've learned that rolling them when changing clothes opposed to sitting them up, works well on my back.

Oh yes, and some patients roll beautifully with one person helping them - there are plenty of patients that I can roll with one hand and clean up and change the sheet with my other hand. But then sometimes, for no apparent reason, some patients are incredibly difficult to roll. Sometimes I think it's because they're really fat so when they roll they don't go right over on their side because the side-bars get in the way! Other times, they have medical conditions that mean they're stiff, or they're confused so they stiffen up on purpose or push back against you...

Lessee...that's hard. I guess it would either be hefting heavy trash bags that seemed like they would pop under the weight, or lifting multiple boxes of beer for stocking. I used to have a job which was pretty much moderately strenuous work. One time, I carried two big TVs, one in each hand. But by then, I was stronger so it didn't feel like much. People were amazed to see this girl have such strength. Those TVs weren't light!

Working in a printing plant.. I had to move 1500 rolls of paper around by hand since it was impossible to use a forklift around the presses... I also had to lift smaller rolls ranging from a few pounds to several hundred... And I worked in shipping and recieving so had to load and unload a lot of stuff.. One of the reasons why I am on disability for my back now...

I also worked in a Talc mine which was a lot of manual labor...

Well, I am sure that you know that if they are hitting the sidebars (opposite you)...then you have to physically bring them close to you, while they are on their back. If you are alone, you may have to move the upper body first and then the lower body (if they are, indeed, heavy) and then a proper roll will bring then on their side...giving you a little less work space, but it can be done.

Some people are simply too big for that to be good for your back. Yes, you could use slide sheets to move them in the bed...but to do that, you'd need to roll them! Do you have extra wide beds for certain patients in the US? That could be handy, although it would make it necessary to lean further over, which might ultimately be a bad thing.

No, our beds are standard size. We (when I worked in nursing homes) would make certain that all of our patients had slide sheets already, even if it meant more laundry, as part of their everyday linen. On their back, you should have enough slide sheet (on your side) to slide them towards you in sections...if you are alone. Are you going into the medical field?

I'm confused. Do you mean that you would put two slide sheets on the bed underneath the ordinary sheets? So it would go (bottom to top) bed, slide sheet, slide sheet, bottom sheet, patient, top sheet, blankets...? How would you stop them from sliding all over the place?

I do intend to go into medicine. I just have to wait and see if the medical school admissions tutors agree that it's a good idea!

I wish you such luck!! You are very smart to be working with patients, already, some people drop out of medical profession because they can't take the patient aspect of it...which is the most important part. Yes, two slide sheets. How are you defining a slide sheet...and we do this, mostly, with large patients...who do not slide very easily at all.

A slide sheet to me is a low-friction sheet (must be made from something like teflon) - you use two of them underneath a patient and slide the top one to move them around in the bed.

The thing that's confusing me is that from your description before it sounded like you left them underneath the patients all of the time - you didn't just put them under when you wanted to move them. If you do leave them there all the time, wouldn't the patients slip down the bed the second you put the back rest up? Even with a kneebreak, they'd be sliding around! We only put slide-sheets under a patient when we are about to move them - and that obviously necessitates rolling them which returns to the original problem!

I do like hearing how you do things in the US. I've only got experience of my own ward, working with the same groups of nurses. Sometimes I learn a lot when we get bank (agency) nurses on the ward who do things in a different way, and I imagine that practices in the US could often be rather different to ours because I imagine you have a lot more resources available to you. I really believe in the NHS, but it must be nice for doctors to be able to order all of the tests that they think are appropriate, or for wards to actually get enough hospital nightgowns and pyjamas each morning to actually clothe the patients who do not have their own...rather than having to resort to putting some people into gowns. The worst is the pyjama situation - there is apparently a hospital-wide shortage of pyjama bottoms (trousers). Some mornings we get 10 pyjama bottoms sent up from linen. We go round and do our washes and we put clean ones on all our incontinent men and give clean ones to the men who do not have their own. By the time a couple of our incontinent men have soiled their trousers, we have completely run out on the ward. We have to put them in gowns. The next day, we get sent no trousers so they have to stay in gowns and the men who aren't incontinent but don't have their own clothes have to wear the same ones as from the day before. And then the next day is the same...and then the next day. And then finally we may get another 10 which of course we get through completely in the course of a couple of hours because everyone needs a new pair! Gowns just aren't very dignified I also hate things like the way that one of the toilets on the ward will break and we have to close it. Then we wait a good two days to get it fixed. Or the fact that we're on the corner of the hospital so two of our siderooms are absolutely freezing. Rather than getting new fan heaters for those rooms (after the last ones were condemned) the heating for the whole ward gets turned up so everywhere but those two rooms is absolutely sweltering. Which is even worse - because how does that much heating cost less than two new fan heaters???

Grr. I think that everyone in the NHS has a real love/hate relationship with it. I've watched my father work for it my whole life, and I always said that it was one place that I would never work. And now here I am - in it for life!!!

Biggles,

Our slide sheets are actual cloth material (rayon and polyester, I believe) that can be washed. You are talking about an ' Sliding board'...which we have when moving patients from their bed onto a gurney (stretcher), if they are large and unable to move themselves. This 'board' is then removed, of course and placed under them when returning to their beds...then removed. We have actual pull sheets, that are slippery on cotton sheets, some have small cut out handles. Though not as efficient as your 'boards', they can be kept under the patient at all times, precisely for turning patients on their sides....which the Nurses Aides are always doing for dressing and changing. They are essential and we have hundreds of them, and as they are soiled too...we can remove them once a patient is on their side, and place a fresh one on the bed. Though it is cloth, it does prevent back injuries. They can also assist the actual placing a patient on their side. It is the slippery material that is the key.
Yes, we never run out of linen...there are closets and closets of them and we do not gown a patient unless they are going to have a medical procedure that requires it. We have 'snap pants', as well...which is a bit easier than rolling pants over the foot, knee...to the hip (which is the most difficult part).
You would be surprised at the insurance companies that will not authorize certain procedures, so our physicians aren't as free to order every test available. But for the most part, they can. All it takes is an extra signature from a superior. I know that the NHS involves everyone entitled to health care...we have individual state insurance which catches the patients who are not eligible for private or federal insurance. Patients rarely ever pay for procedure. If they do not qualify for any insurance (which is very, very rare), then they are entitles to "Free Care", which is hospital based...so in the end, very little money changes hands. Does the NHS allocate funds for patient clothing ? And you cannot order an amount that will cover all for your patients on a weekly basis? We couldn't function without all our apparel. I have been to Canada, which has similar NHS systems. I guess the patient suffers the most.

I've had doctor's 'fib' here to get a test paid for by even a great insurance company. Breast cancer runs in the family and my doctor wanted me to get my first baseline earlier than usual so the sheet said they were checking for fibroids, which I don't have. There have been a couple of other instances.

I`ve done way to many to list them all.
Roofing
Concrete
hod carrier
Also try to put up posts and string up a few miles of barbed wire fence by yourself.
Drilling and blasting rock
Working a horse bording ranch with 150 horses borded.

I have now read a lot of other comments and I don`t think anyone here could do the thing I have done and can still do to this day.

I also did 4 years of military training. The head games were eve rough.

Moving, the whole ball of wax. Pack, move, unpack, organize.

> Our slide sheets are actual cloth material (rayon and polyester,
> I believe) that can be washed. You are talking about an ' Sliding
> board'...which we have when moving patients from their bed onto a
> gurney (stretcher), if they are large and unable to move themselves.

No - our slide sheets are the same as yours - low friction rayon/polyester sheets. The sliding board you mention is what we call a pat-slide - we use them quite a lot for transferring patients from a bed with one kind of mattress onto a bed with a better mattress for their weight/condition.

> We have actual pull sheets,
> that are slippery on cotton sheets, some have small cut out handles.
> Though not as efficient as your 'boards', they can be kept under the
> patient at all times, precisely for turning patients on their sides....

That's really interesting. Are they the same as slide sheets, or slightly different? We use slide sheets a lot on my ward, but I've never heard of any of them being left under a patient. Although - we don't have hundreds of them, and if we let any of them off the ward to get washed then we are extremely lucky to actually get them back again! Any patient who needs them has a pair by their bed all the time - when the patient is discharged they get wiped down and returned to the linen cupboard unless they've been used on infectious patients when they tend to get sent away for cleaning.

I'm a big fan of slide sheets. I try and encourage everyone on my ward to use them as often as possible...I wish we had enough that we could leave them under patients...but I still don't see how you can do that without the patient slipping around in the bed. My patients manage to slip down to the bottom of the bed under normal circumstances - even with the knee break right up! With a slide sheet, it seems as if they'd slide straight to the bottom as soon as you turned your back

> Yes, we never run out of linen...there are closets and closets
> of them and we do not gown a patient unless they are going to have
> a medical procedure that requires it. We have 'snap pants', as well...which
> is a bit easier than rolling pants over the foot, knee...to the hip
> (which is the most difficult part).

I arrived on my ward today to find a linen cupboard without a single flat sheet in it. I had to phone security to let me into the main linen store in the basement...but they were busy and I had to wait over half an hour for them to actually be available. My ward is allowed 20 flat sheets a day - we have them delivered every morning. Most of our beds have fitted sheets on them, but they also all have a top flat sheet, and incontinent patients have a bottom flat sheet and a top flat sheet. That means that most patients don't get clean linen on their bed every day...which won't hurt them really. We manage when we just have a couple of incontinent patients on the ward, but when we have more than 3 (i.e. almost always) then there's no way that 20 sheets will last 24 hours. At least security let us take what we want - I bagged 80 sheets when I went down today which will keep us stocked up right through to the weekend...but chances are my ward manager will get a nasty email about it tomorrow!

> Does the NHS allocate funds for patient
> clothing ?

Individual hospitals manage a lot of their own finances. My hospital doesn't have funds to keep all of its wards open, or to hire new staff members to replace anyone who leaves, and we are doing better than a lot of hospitals who are actually having to lay nurses and healthcare assistants off. That will come to my hospital too before long though. There's no real job security at the moment. We have a lot of Filipino nurses...and there are rumours that the government will not renew any of their contracts (their leave to stay in the UK) when they are due which is awful as many of them have been in the UK for years.

> I have been to Canada, which has similar NHS systems.
> I guess the patient suffers the most.

The NHS is very worthwhile, and a lot of patient care is excellent. But it does tend to be a case of doing as much as we can with what we have, rather than providing a truly excellent service. A couple of other examples of that: one of the ward showers had a leaking floor on Sunday - water got underneath the lino and caused it all to billow up. I had to lock the shower because it isn't safe like that.There's only emergency repairs available at the weekend, so I called estates on monday morning. It was wednesday today and it hasn't been fixed yet - no idea when it will be. So we have 20 patients sharing one shower. And another example: one of our bays is freezing cold. We asked for the heating to be turned up. The cold air fans got put on instead. Once we got that corrected, the heating still isn't going up and the room is still cold. We can't get the hospital to actually fix it, so on the ward we do what we can which was basically to tape up around all of the windows and give everyone an extra blanket. It isn't good enough. And guess what we use in my hospital to lock and unlock the windows? Keys? No, we use toothbrushes.

*sigh* I do believe in it, and I think I'm painting a bleaker picture than is fair. Our patients often do get great care, and the quality of nursing that I have seen appears to be very high. People are very knowledgeable and very caring. But it would be great if that could be complemented by patients getting scans etc. within a day of them being booked, and not 10 days later.

Grr. Must stop ranting.

Ah - one benefit of the NHS then. If the consultant wants, the consultant gets. The only catch is, it has to be two weeks later, after the patient has died...!

I was about to say "" but then it's not really funny is it?

, You are not ranting...you are being truthful and I admire your dedication. But as you have said, you put a slide (pull) sheet under the patient...you must roll them on their sides, one way and then the other, of course. Maybe it is we have a type of flat sheet directly under the patient that adheres a little to the slide sheet (which is the next layer). If unsoiled, we can turn the patient with the slide sheet...with handles (out pouches) on their side...for the purpose of dressing and daily cleaning. If the sheets are soiled, everything that is affected must be replaced and we do have an endless supply. That is where I see your facilities are getting stuck: running out of adequate linen which only imposes more work for you. You say that you are going into the medical field. I sense that the facilities were are both speaking about are nursing homes (residents for the elderly). At least I am referring to that setting, I work in an emergency room now but I was supervisor of a nursing home for a short while. I hope that your exposure to patients isn't limited to the elderly. It's good to get experienced in a wide range of patients, in terms of mobility and pathology. In a general teaching hospital, aide do much more than changing,feeding and washing patients....as some are completely ambulatory...but other duties must be done. Preping for medical procedures and such, vital sign monitoring. Do not limit yourself...though if you are heading for geriatrics, then you are in the right place.
NHS: The impression that we have isn't excellent medical care but very basic medical care, in terms of ordering medical procedures. It is not uncommon, here, for a patient to have several doctors treating them at once...all with their set of dx and procedures. Of course, the consult each other but the patient is being billed for the services of four physicians...which can be a hefty amount. As I have said, if a patient does not qualify for insurance....then the facility will give them free care, as..how can a patient living 150% below the poverty line be expected to pay a 5,550 dollar bill. It would be a waste of paper and postage. Those that make a living try to obtain positions with medical benefits...and those who do not have that option but get insurance on their own. Average single person private insurance: 250-300 dollars a month (a car payment)....Family: (600-800) dollars a month with the presumption that both parents are working in a moderately paying job.
I am not so much ranting as much as the point I want to make is, we have an abundance of everything at our disposal and never think twice about costs...especially in the emergency room. It just doesn't factor into the situation. (Thank God!!!)

It's British NHS worker humour. If you don't laugh you die...

Actually I *am* working in a hospital. We're the main acute hospital in my city and I work on a medical ward that specialises in diabetes, but we get a lot of general medical patients as well - and quite a lot of renal patients too. We have quite a few elderly and/or immobile patients, but usually the majority of our patients are mobile and self-caring...My responsibilities do extend beyond personal care, but that's still where I spend most of my time. I'm the lowest level of healthcare assistant (even though I'm the only one on my ward with a degree) because I intend to leave next August so it is not worth it for my ward to pay for me to do the advanced level training that would prepare me to do dressings, take blood, cannulate, etc.

I'm pretty happy with my current position - I learn a great deal every time that I go to work. Every conversation that I have with a patient brings a new challenge or a fresh insight. Before I started working there, I never realised that the people who would teach me the most about working in a medical setting would be the patients themselves. And they haven't just taught me about working...I have learned more about life from my patients in 9 months than I learned in 3 years at university. I'd love to be doing more technical things as well, but for right now I really do feel that I'm in the right place, and I am learning vital new skills.

When I was a mechanic at a nuclear power plant. Nothing but strenuous labor. At home the most when I used a jackhammer to bust up all the concrete in my yard.

That is wonderful, but I feel that you aren't wanting to be a nurse. You never really told me what you eventually hope to be. Would that advanced training really require so much time? You'll be in your position for nine more months and I would think that you would want to learn as much as you can. Remember, your ward benefits from your additional training, as well...and you've put in a decent amount of time there to be getting something back. Here, in the USA, interns (for a variety of medical specialties) are constantly being trained to acquire more skills...they expect it, and the medical institutions know that an employee is not required to work at their facility forever. But they do the work (sometimes the harder work, in your case) so they get something back from the facility. You appear to be very conscientious and you, most likely, have the ability to much more than what you are currently trained to do. Do you get bored?
Engaging conversations with patients is always interesting and it is so easy (for me, now) to adjust rather quickly to the 'tone' of the patient. Meeting them on their level...whether they are happy, sad, mad or glad. They vent and I validate whatever they are feeling. I tend to do a lot of the explaining after a physician's visit...as they can rarely ever catch all of the doctors statements. What will happen to you in August? Where do you plan to go then? Are you still in college?

> That is wonderful, but I feel that you aren't wanting to be a nurse.
> You never really told me what you eventually hope to be.

I'm hoping to go back to university to study medicine so that I can become a doctor.

>Would that
> advanced training really require so much time? You'll be in your position
> for nine more months and I would think that you would want to learn
> as much as you can. Remember, your ward benefits from your additional
> training, as well...and you've put in a decent amount of time there
> to be getting something back.

It would most likely be a day a week (one out of five) when my ward would be paying me to be there, but I would actually be attending a study day elsewhere. In other words, it would be costing my ward over £40 each study day, over a period of several weeks. It mounts up But hopefully I can still attend some one-off study days...and I am learning additional skills, like blood pressures, etc., by observing and practicing on members of staff. (One nurse even bared her arm and offered to let me try taking blood, but I wimped out - I'd do it if she offered again though )

>Here, in the USA, interns (for a variety
> of medical specialties) are constantly being trained to acquire more
> skills...they expect it, and the medical institutions know that an
> employee is not required to work at their facility forever.

It is the same here. When I'm a medical student, and later a junior doctor, I'll have those opportunities.

> Do you get bored?

I find that the work tends to be what you make of it. I don't find it intellectually stimulating all of the time, but there is certainly scope for making it so, by reading up on conditions and listening carefully to what is being discussed by others on the staff.

I certainly wouldn't want to do it forever - I think I would find it frustrating if I thought that it was a long-term thing, but for the short-term, I find it very satisfying.

> What will happen to you in August?

Hopefully I'll be holding an offer to study medicine come September. I'm hoping to leave at the start of August so that I can spend some time moving to a new city and just generally having some time off.

>Where do you plan to go then?

I've applied to four medical schools, which is the maximum allowed in a single year here. Most of them are in or near to Yorkshire, which is my home county - although one is a long way away in Norfolk. I'm a graduate in a system where most people apply for medicine straight from school at 17/18, so I'm expecting to hear back from universities later than most - but I just received my first invitation to interview this morning

>Are you still in college?

No, I graduated with a degree in Biological Sciences in summer 2005. Now I'm working full-time, but I am doing a degree module with the Open University (a well respected correspondence-based university) on Death and Dying.

Is it more difficult to get into medical school at your age? How can a medical school accept students at 17/18? How do they know their academic capacity? Are they accepted on the condition that they do well in pre-med?

I can already tell that you will be an excellent physician. You seem to be very conscientious and detail oriented....and your warm bedside manor will separate you from the stoic factual based MD's who are, more or less, feared by their patients. Yes, learning to be a phlebotomist will help you in medical school...but you have to be in a position to be taking blood on a continual basis to really be proficient at it. All of it, you will learn in time. In fact, you'll learn everything in time....but be unique with your bedside manor, it is something that really cannot be taught in school, so it is your creativity that it will emerge from. I am sure that you are empathetic and compassionate, but try to find a 'unique' (your own) way to interact with patients. Something that separates you from all other physicians...because it will be your special technique that you will be remembered by, and loved by your patients!

I had to dig holes a foot deep to put trees in it and then cover the hole back up

Loading Hay bales weighing over 100 pounds

Moving furniture, or lifting institutional sized kitchen garbage cans over my shoulder to dump in the dumpster. I eventually trained myself to hold them with only one arm. They were heavy!

Helping to pour and level cement for the outdoor cat run.

Patient care at a nursing home.