Risk And Implement Falls Prevention Measures

Many of these inpatient falls can be prevented when following the proper fall prevention measures. Not only does patient safety make preventing falls a priority but the financial impact these falls have on an institution make it a priority as well.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine if registered nurses are utilizing evidence-based practice fall-preventative strategies, such as modification of patient-specific risk factors and implementation of a proper physical training program, to reduce and prevent falls and injuries in the elderly population.

Increased falls on a particular unit became a concern. The unit formed a fall prevention committee. This committee used evidence-based practice to create a plan and interventions to help reduce falls. The fall prevention committee then monitored trends in the fall prevention process, fall rates, medications, surgeries and disease comorbidities that were associated with fall. Implementing these techniques had a significate reduction of patient falls.

All healthcare professionals will receive an adequate training about fall prevention. The topics that will be covered are the correct usage of falls risk assessment tool and care plan, universal fall precautions, the causes and effects of falls, and so forth. One on one education will be provided to the patients by the assigned nurse.

Capan, K., & Lynch, B. (2007). Reports from the field: patient safety. a hospital fall assessment and intervention project. Journal of Clinical Outcomes Management: JCOM, 14(3), 155-160.

The nursing process has been improved along the way, from Orlando’s original four step process in the late 1950’s, then, a separate step of a nursing diagnosis was added. As to the American Nurses Association Scope and Practice (2nd Edition, 2010), there was another important step of expected outcomes to identify patient goals. So, as the nursing process has been re-evaluated and improved the patient is re-evaluated and improved by the improved nursing process-problem solver. My fall prevention project has revealed to me and my readers there are vast numbers of risk factors that are involved in falls including medications, nutrition, cultures (beliefs), mental status and a history of falls. The nursing process has been and will always be used

Falls among elderly individuals have continued to be a major challenge for health care providers. Individuals hospitalized for falls incur a higher health cost compared to other hospitalized patients. Despite efforts to reduce the number of falls through the use of some strategies, fall rates continue to be high in hospitals. According to Massachusetts Department of Public Health, and a recent summary performed by the Bureau of Health Care Safety and Quality (2011), Massachusetts acute care hospitals reported 57% of serious reportable events as environmental; 98% of those serious events were attributed to patient falls (Nientimp & Peterson, 2012). There is limited research that supports the idea that hourly rounding performed by nurses has an impact on reducing patient falls (Lascom, 2015).

Keywords: Clinical Supervision Patient Safety Quality of Care Nurses Risk of Fall Morse Fall Scale

Minor (2009) explains the Memorial Hermann Texas Medical Center (MH-TMC) fall reduction committee reviewed the historical data related to fall within their facility and compared their data with the national data. Therefore, indicators used were patient fall rates, also the outcome indicators used were patient fall rates. Thereby, reviewed were the current data, recommendations, and current practice. Also, the utilization of the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI) was completed for the external benchmarks. Also, completion of the national comparison of patient falls in other facilities. Also, internal benchmarks were utilized within the organization for the comparison different population risks, patient acuity levels,

Patient safety is one of the nation's most imperative health care issues. A 1999 article by the Institute of Medicine estimates that 44,000 to 98,000 people die in U.S. hospitals each year as the result of lack of in patient safety regulations. Inhibiting falls among patients and residents in acute and long term care healthcare settings requires a multifaceted method, and the recognition, evaluation and prevention of patient or resident falls are significant challenges for all who seek to provide a safe environment in any healthcare setting. Yearly, about 30% of the persons of 65 years and older falls at least once and 15% fall at least twice. Patient falls are some of the most common occurrences reported in hospitals and are a leading

A fall is a lethal event that results from an amalgamation of both intrinsic and extrinsic factors which predispose an elderly person to the incident (Naqvi et al 2009). The frequency of hospital admission due to falls for older people in Australia, Canada, UK and Northern Ireland range from 1.6 to 3.0 per 10 000 population (WHO 2012). The prevalence of senior citizen’s falls in acute care settings varies widely and the danger of falling rises with escalating age or frailty. Falls of hospitalized older adults are one of the major patient safety issues in terms of morbidity, mortality, and decreased socialization

Quality improvement is referred to as “the use of data to monitor the outcomes for care processes and use improvement methods to design and test changes to continuously improve the quality and safety of health care” (Sherwood & Barnsteiner, 2012). Data is used as the reflection of quality care that is provided by nurses and presents whether or not improvement is needed. In order for nurses to be mindful of the care that they give, they must be taught a systematic process of defining problems, identifying possible causes of those problems, and methods for trying out new solutions to prevent those problems (Sherwood & Barnsteiner, 2012). Currently, quality improvement measures are being utilized throughout hospitals to reduce the risk of patient falls and fall injuries.

As a nurse we want to ensure that our patients receive a high quality of care. Patients should feel safe and satisfied while hospitalized. Many hospitals are continually looking for answers and implementation to significantly reduce the inpatient fall incidents. According to Bechdel et al (2014), the top priority of health care organizations nationwide is to reduce and eliminate falls within the clinical care settings. One of the serious problems in acute care hospital is the patient’s fall. The unfamiliar environment, acute and co-morbid illnesses, prolonged bedrest, polypharmacy, and the placement of tubes and catheters are common challenges that place patients at risk of falling. Most of the falls that I have encountered while working involves

If patient safety is the most important issue in Health Care facilities then how come hospital inpatient falls continue to be the most reported of all accidental falls (Tzeng & Yin, 2009)? Throughout the years, hospitals continue to make changes to decrease the risk of accidents and increase the quality of patient safety. With research studies and improvements made, patient falls still hold the largest portion of reported incidents in hospitals (Tzeng, & Yin, 2008). According to Tzeng & Yin (2008), “fall prevention programs apparently do not effectively reduce inpatient fall rates because of human factors and ergonomics in a hospital environment (p.179, para. 2). The two studies reviewed in this paper were performed with the hopes of

Problem: Patient falls have long been a common and serious problem in hospitals across the nation, causing