Boosting 30 Degrees

Many patients cannot tolerate being placed flat in the bed, even for a very few minutes. This technique allows patients who must keep their head raised to at least 30 Degrees to be safely boosted and turned by one caregiver. The sitting patient may also be full turned for cleaning and linen changes. The only restrictions to this technique MAY be those situations where it is desired to fully elevate the patient off the bed surface, since depending on the patient's size there may not be enough drop in the bed to fully elevate the patient.
With the patient sitting at 30 degrees attach the sheet clamps to the draw sheet on both sides of the patient.
Fold the patient's arms over their chest if possible.
Position the end of the sheet clamp at the top of the patient's shoulder.
Take special care to angle the ends of the sheet clamps toward the patient's hips so as to have as little slack as possible in the draw sheet.
Raise the side rails.
Raise the bed.
Lift the belts up to remove any slack, then tug down to assure the belt is locked. Repeat for other belts.
Remove the pillow from behind the patient's neck.
Prepare to support the patient's head and neck with your hand as they move up the bed.
Lower the bed; the sheet will form a sling underneath the patient.
The patient will gently be pulled to the head of the bed. When the patient is in the desired position, stop lowering the bed.
With the patient at the top of the bed follow the standard technique for turning to the side. No special sheet clamp position is required for turning sitting patients.

Note: With the sitting position technique the patient may sometimes not reach the top of the bed on the first boost. If the bed is lowered and the patient is not fully up in bed, simply raise the bed again, remove the slack and check for lock, then lower the bed and the patient will move to the top of the bed.