Essay On Falls Prevention

Falls are considered a leading cause of mortality and injury among older adults and majority of the falls occurs while hospitalized. One would think being in the hospital would be one of the safest places for older adults as far as fall prevention is concern due to the fact that hospitals provide staffing around the clock for patients but more and more falls have been occurring in the hospital especially in the older adult population. Fall is an unintended descent to the ground. It raises public and family care liability; it also decreases patient’s functioning because it causes pain and suffering, and increases medical costs (Saverino et al, 2015). The Center for Disease Control

Medical expenses in United States are increasing at an enormous pace. One of the highest expenditure of its expenses is used toward the care of elderly US senior citizens. Elderly people are vulnerable to many diseases, but one of the incidents that the elderly people are prone to is fall. As a person grows older, chances of fall increases. Elderly person have weaker bones, and a damages caused by a fall can have a huge impact on an elderly person’s health. Falls are the leading cause of injury related visit to emergency department and primary etiology of accidental deaths among elderly people. Emergency department visits related to falls are more common in children less than five years of age and adults 65 years of age and older. Compared

Falls amongst elderly adults are a major societal problem leading to fall-related injuries and disabilities. Falls impact aging in place, bring high healthcare costs, as well as isolation and disengagement due to the fear of falling. A sociopolitical influence that may have impacted Dr. Chippendale’s work is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has an intervention program that promotes healthy aging by addressing falls and fall prevention in the neighborhood context. The goal of this program is to partner with other organizations that share the same interest in reducing fall-related injuries amongst the elderly population (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2004). This

Falls are triggered by multifaceted factors with numerous dangers that include either long or short term influencing factors. The connections between these factors may be altered by the person?s age, ailments, illnesses, diagnoses such as Parkinson?s, stroke, diabetes mellitus and arthritis, or their surroundings. The major fall risk factors for elderly include their advancing age, loss of muscle strength, unsteady gait, impaired balance, incontinence of bowel or bladder, depression, cognitive impairment, due to

Nowadays being at risk for falling could be life threating for the elderly population, which is a big concern for most health care professionals. Physicians, physical therapist, occupational therapist, physical therapist assistants and other groups of health workers play a major role in reducing fall risks for older adults. Therefore, the elderly population should have a targeted multifactorial assessment focused on fall prevention. According to the Academy of Geriatric Physical Therapy of the American Physical Therapy Association, there is evidence that falls can be prevented by detecting risk factors and prescribing recommendations to reduce the chance of fall (Avin, Keith G, ; Hanke, Timothy A; Kirk-Sanchez, Neva; McDonough, Christine M; Shubert, Tiffany E; et al, Jun 2015).

Summary: Falls and related injuries are a major concern among elderly people. In Finland, more than 1000 elderly people die due to a fall-related injury every year, which is four times more than the people died in traffic accidents. Fall prevention is necessary for older people since falls are main risk factors for fractures and other correctable injuries. Falls clinics use guidelines of multifactoral fall prevention interventions to assess and implement elderly people of fall prevention. The study was conducted at the Chaos Clinic located in the city of Tampere,

Fall prevention is a primordial safety concern in hospitals. There can be multiple bad outcomes from a simple fall. The fall of a patient can result in immediate death. This is to say that a patient could fall and die on impact. Weak and confused, a patient may fall on the floor without a way to lessen the impact from the fall. This patient may fracture his or her skull. Fractured femur or hip bones can result from falls in the elderly because of their weaker bones. This would extend the length of the hospital stay for the patient. This would be terrible considering that many of these falls are preventable. The patient can become permanently disabled form a fall while hospitalized. The measures against falls are many because they can be caused

This article utilized some programs that are similar the field experience site. Therefore, one can use this article as a reference to modify and adjust the current fall prevent protocol to make an effective change to reduce falls in the hospital. Furthermore, the article also recommends education related to fall prevention that can be useful content in the transition program.

Falls may also have significant social and psychological impacts such as a fear of falling, reductions in confidence and independence, and a restriction of social and physical activities.

Falls are the leading cause of accidental death in seniors and result in health care services and early admission into nursing homes. The fear of falling is defined as a “lasting concern about falling that can lead an individual to avoid activities that an individual remains capable of performing.” (Cogdill, Allison, Daugherty, Dhigra, 2012). Thirty-three to fifty five percent of older adults experience a fear of falling whether or not they have previously fallen.

The definition of the concepts ‘fall prevention’ has not really been an issue in the fall related studies. That notwithstanding, fall prevention is defined as a variety of actions to help reduce the number of accidental falls suffered by older people. These actions are done in processes that has been defined in specific guidelines (NICE, 2013 and WHO, 2012). Fall prevention is effective when it integrates policy (PO), preventive measures (PM) and practice (PA)(WHO, 2007; NICE, 2013)

As population ages in all developing nations, impacts of falls remaining a huge problem for social and healthcare systems (Oliver, 2009). According to National Institute on Aging (NIA), in 2006 almost 500 million people worldwide were aged 65 or older. That number projected to reach 1 billion by 2030 with most rapid increases in developing countries. Because older adults are fastest growing segment of the United States population the problem is only going to get worth. An estimated 25% to 39% of adults aged 65 years or older fall each year (Keskin et al., 2008). Falls accounted for a leading cause of injuries, hospitalizations and death among elderly. Besides, people who sustained a fall within a past year will be more prone to

Stuksnes et al. (2011) performed a study aimed at determining nurses' views on the causes of falls, the types of interventions to reduce falls, documentation practices, and reactions to falls in older patients with dementia. For the quantitative analyses comparisons were to be made between two independent variables: registered nurses (RNs) and enrolled nurses (ENs) as well as by level of experience (< 5 years experience versus > 5 years experience, on the above dependent variables. Given that the independent variables are subject variables there was no randomization. Participants were recruited according to proper research etiquette and ethical guidelines.

of older Americans and increase their quality of life. The establishment of evidenced-based fall prevention programs can serve

The consequences from falls are a public health concern (WHO, 2016b). Older adults can be exposed to risk factors, which increase the likeliness of falling (Hunter & Miller, 2016). Older adults that sustain damage from falls have a reduced quality of life (WHO, 2016b). In a student’s experience, the registered nurse assessed a patient in an age care facility using the falls risk assessment and management plan [FRAMP] (Western Australian Department of Health, 2013). Using the FRAMP revealed that this patient was at risk of falling and had risk factors such as a history of falls, weakness, cardiovascular disease and cardiovascular medications, a risk of depression and impaired cognition (Western Australia Department of Health,