Transferring and Positioning - Maxi Slide Sheets

My wife is a nurse and has been training with a product called Maxi Slide Sheets. They are a really neat product for transferring immobile patients from one bed to another or for just moving a patient up in the bed for repositioning. Here is their PDF showing the product in use, however the training video does it more justice.


For us, this would have been great on several occasions as we needed to reposition Macayla for bath (which required that we spin her completely around with her head at the foot of the bed) or to just move her up closer to the head of the bed. Macayla grew to be a very tall and was heavy to move. She was dead weight much of the time and it was not always comfortable for her when we moved her. These sheets would have been great! Unfortunately, I cannot seem to find any American suppliers carrying them on their websites. Several European companies seem to though. Obviously, it is for sale here for hospitals but not the home yet.



Being the inventive sort that I am, I believe a similar product could be made at home. The material is much like that which tents are made of and as a result it is slick. Two sheets are used at once. One sheet on top of the other. As the patient lies on them, the sheet they are on easily slides across the sheet below it on the bed. Maybe with some creative sewing and care, these could be reproduced if you have a tent you are willing to sacrifice! However, I'm not sure how tent material and this material compare in strength, so much caution would need to be taken there. Plus, by the time you factor in the cost of the tent and the nylon strapping and time sewing, it may be worth just ordering the blasted things from somewhere. If I find out who is selling them, I'll update it here.
You can also get the product under the person by a process called unravelling without having to roll them from side-to-side (also called "log rolling"). Technically, this "unravelling" technique can be used to get any sheet under a person. I will try to find pictures, video or diagram to show this soon. It is a great technique for many situations.