A nurse has been awarded $1.2 million in damages after she experienced severe lumbar disc prolapse while helping to reposition a heavy, immobile hospital patient.

Cardiothoracic nurse Jiji Palackalody told the NSW District Court that workforce shortages and a reliance on nurses to lift patients manually at St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney had led to her 2017 injury.

She said she had worked eight consecutive 10-hour shifts in the 24-bed coronary care ward when the high-dependence coronary care unit was left short of nurses at the shift changeover.

Having just finished her shift, she had nonetheless helped a colleague reposition a patient.