Needles everywhere. Dangerous germs. Blood, urine and vomit. Users high on bath salts.

And, of course, lots of heavy lifting.

You have to be brave to face the hazards of working in health care.

More health care workers get hurt on the job than miners, farmers or stevedores. In fact, more health care and social assistance workers suffer work-related injuries and illnesses each year than in any other industry, according to the Occupational Health and Safety Administration.

And health care has one of the highest incidence rates of nonfatal injuries and illness.

That's bad news for workers and for employers who lose skilled workers to medical leave and foot the bill for workers' compensation claims. Faxton St. Luke's Healthcare, for example, racked up more than $4 million in worker comp claims last year, officials said.

The hospital now is implementing a program that should help reduce one of the most common health care injuries - back and upper extremity injuries while transferring patients, a job that's gotten more difficult as the population has become more obese. St. Elizabeth Medical Center has seen big payoffs since starting the same program in 2005.

Kathleen Schaub knows all about the risk of patient transfers. As a registered nurse in a cardiac telemetry unit at Faxton St. Luke's, she frequently helps patients into and out of bed.

In one scenario, workers lift a patient with their hands under the patient's armpits, she said. Sometimes, though, an uncooperative patient suddenly goes slack.

You can imagine what that does to your back, Schaub said. And that happens frequently.

More:

Health care workers near top of the list for getting hurt on job