Ergonomic Tip: The Thyroid Towel Roll

​I just learned a great new ergonomic tip. I’m going to start making this an official thing around here. Genius Ergonomic Tips! We sonographers can’t know enough of them if we want to save our shoulders, wrists and backs, and we certainly can’t know them all on our own. So thanks, Julie, for sharing this great trick with me for a more comfortable position during thyroid scans. I’m excited to pass on your tip to others. 

Step 1: Take a medium sized towel, and fold it in half the long way, then roll it up loosely.

Step 2: Get your thyroid patient all set up on the bed (head of the bed lowered down flat, pillow down a bit under their shoulders, laying nice and close next to you) and place the rolled up towel in the middle of their chest.

Step 3: Adjust the height of the bed to about your hip level (standing or sitting) so that your arm can easily rest on the towel on their chest when you place the transducer on the thyroid area. The towel roll should be parallel to your arm and you shouldn’t have to reach up or lean down to rest your arm on it. If you find that you are, adjust the bed height accordingly.

Step 4: Start scanning in comfort. You’re all set to go!

For me this was a really new position and it took a few tries to relax myself into it. When I first tried it I found two things tricky:

Problem One: I kept forgetting to use the rolled up towel as I was so accustomed to scanning thyroids without it.
​My Solution: I rolled up a towel first thing in the morning and placed in within arm’s reach on the counter beside me or on my machine. If it was in front of me I remembered to use it more often. And if it was within reach then I could easily interrupt my scan to use it. 

Problem Two: At first I found the position of my hand and arm awkward on the towel. I was so used to scanning with my wrist perched precariously on my patient’s shoulder or clavicle that actually being in a comfortable supported position felt, well, weird.
​My Solution: I decided I would try the towel roll for 5 scans and then see how I felt about it. Each time it felt a little better. I would wriggle my wrist around and adjust the height of the bed and looseness of the towel roll until it felt just right. This was more a matter of adjusting the towel to suit me and I definitely had to try it more than once to get comfortable with it.
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