Musculoskeletal Injuries (MSIs)

The most common type of injury

Musculoskeletal injuries (MSIs) involve our muscles and skeleton. They can also affect tendons, ligaments, joints, nerves, and blood vessels. Some everyday names for MSIs are

  • sprains and strains
  • over-exertion
  • soft tissue damage
  • repetitive strain

Musculoskeletal injuries (MSIs) like sprains and strains are the most common workplace injuries in Nova Scotia. In 2024, 61% of time-loss claims were caused by MSIs.  

What causes MSIs?

  • Doing the same movement over and over again
  • Lifting, carrying, pushing, or pulling heavy loads
  • Standing or sitting in an awkward position for a long time

Take Action: Managing Workplace Injury Risk

As a supervisor or leader in your workplace, you play a critical role in keeping your people safe. Here are six steps you can take to reduce MSIs in your workplace:

1.    Education and Awareness

Make sure every employee understands the risks in their workplace and knows the signs of an MSI. When people know what to watch for, they can speak up before a small problem becomes a serious injury. Ways to build awareness:

  • Host lunch and learn sessions or toolbox talks
  • Share posters and resources about MSIs
  • Set up a small team focused on injury prevention

2.    Find the Risks

Know where injuries are most likely to happen. Look at the jobs, tasks and work areas in your workplace. Find out which ones carry the highest risk of injury. Talk to your employees — they know their work best and can help you spot hazards.

Tools to help you:

3.    Assess Each Risk

Find out how serious each hazard is. Once you know where the risks are, take a closer look. Figure out which hazards are most likely to cause injury so you know where to act first. Include employees who do those tasks — their input makes the assessment more accurate.

4.    Put Controls in Place

Take action to remove or reduce the danger.  Work with your employees to find solutions that eliminate or reduce the hazards you’ve identified.

5.    Train Your Team

Make sure everyone knows how to work safely. Once a new hazard control is in place, train your employees on how to use it.

6.    Evaluate and Keep Improving

Safety doesn’t get a day off. Review your controls and your overall plan at least once a year. Look for what's working, what isn't and what new risks may have come up.

How to prevent MSIs

Follow these safety tips and information guides to improve MSI safety in your workplace

Checklists and tools to prevent injury

Learn more about MSIs and how to prevent them

WCB Nova Scotia's YouTube playlist of available employer webinars

Check out our webinars to learn more:

  1. Employer Webinar: Making Ergonomics Stick | WCB NS
    • Learn: Simple, effective tools that help supervisors and workers spot and reduce ergonomic hazards.
  2. Risk Mapping Webinar | WCB NS
    • Learn: What is risk mapping and how it can help to identify, assess, and prioritize workplace hazards
  3. Prevention: The Value of Training - Beyond the Checklist | WCB NS
    • Learn: A training framework using Plan-Do-Check-Act, hazard assessments, and safe work procedures
  4. Preventing Sprain and Strain Injuries in Your Workplace | WCB NS
    • Learn: What a musculoskeletal injury (MSI) is and how to identify MSI hazards and risk factors

Related resources

Educate your workers

Download these posters and put them up around your workplace to remind workers of the safest way to work.

Pushing is better than pulling

Nose between toes, use your legs

There's a tool for that

Share these tip sheets to make work safer.

Do you need to report an injury?