Falls Trauma Prevention

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

An hourly rounding is an excellent precaution strategy to make sure that patients’ alarms, call lights, and personal belongings are within reach. One benefit of hourly rounding is that it is pro-active. It reduces patients’ need to get up, thus reduced falls. In Kamehameha Nursing Home, hourly round is required, but because nurses are most of the time busy, they often forget to implement it. This needs to be addressed in order to reduce the number of falls in the facility (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2013). If Universal Precautions is effectively implemented, Kamehameha Nursing Facility’s fall incident will decrease.

The increase in patients falls and the number of patients that are fall risks has greatly increase. Part of this is due to the aging population. While there are many prevention methods in place, patients are continuing to experience falls. “Problem solving relies on decision-making, critical thinking, and/or clinical judgement” (Chamberlain College of Nursing, 2015). I recently had a patient that had two falls during his admission. I placed the patient on 1:1 observation. He was a fall risk due to his history, mental status, and medications (narcotic pain meds and antipsychotics). The patient did not fall again while I was at work. However, after my days off I came back and got report that the patient fell again. The patient had been taken

At the center of a successful falls prevention program is an organizational culture that values safety for both patients and associates. Creating a culture of safety is one of the key interventions that reduce harm for patients in a heath care setting (Quigley & White, 2013). If a health care organization fails to protect patients from harm, there are both legal and financial implications. In the effort to prevent harm to patients and hospital acquired injuries, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) introduced pay-for-performance and the value-based purchasing program in 2008. These non-payment programs, withhold payments to organizations that report hospital acquired injuries such as falls (Rheaume & Fruh, 2015). A reduction is reimbursements leaves a health care organization vulnerable to financial instability. A lack of financial resources can lead to staffing reductions and lack of investment in patient safety interventions; both have been shown to lead to poor patient outcomes (Trepanier & Hilsenbeck, 2014).

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has identified eight adverse conditions, and inpatient injurious falls continues to be the most common adverse condition (as cited in Tzeng, Hu & Yin, 2016). The inpatient falls in the “US hospitals range from 3.3 to 11.5 falls per 1,000 patient days” (as cited in Bouldin et al, 2013, p.13). Roughly 25% of patients are injured when they fall (Bouldin et al, 2013). Since 2005, the USA’s National Patient Safety Goal listed fall prevention as a goal (Bennett, Ockerby, Stinson, Willcocks, & Chalmers, 2014). Since 2008, hospitals no longer receive payments from CMS for health care cost connected to inpatient falls (Bouldin et al, 2013). CMS views inpatient injurious falls as injuries that should never occur (Bouldin et al., 2013). There is no doubt that quality improvement must continue to address inpatient injurious falls. Preventing falls and implementing interventions to lower the rates of falls is a major concern for hospitals and must be included in any quality improvement measure.

According to the Joint Commission Resources-JCR (2005), there is no universally accepted definition of a fall. Thus several definitions have been floated over time in an attempt to define the same. One such definition of a fall is "an untoward event that results in the patient or resident coming to rest unintentionally on the ground or another lower surface" (Joint Commission Resources, 2005). Falls are regarded common causes of injury at every age. However, it is important to note that for seniors, falls can have serious consequences. This is more so the case given that a fall can bring about pain, trauma, or even death. With that in mind, the primary purpose of this program remains the reduction of falls and hence the aversion of related injuries amongst the concerned patients. Of key importance remains the identification of patients who appear to be at high risk of falling. This way, appropriate strategies can be developed to reduce the injuries related to inpatient falls.

A 5 question pre-test on fall prevention will be administered to obtain baseline knowledge of the nurses within the first week of stakeholder’s buy-in on the proposed policy.

Mobility aids are designed to increase mobility and balance for seniors. However, they are actually the causes for many falls in America. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention investigated Emergency Department visits from 2001 to 2006. They analyzed the amount of fall- related injuries and found that 47,312 seniors over the age of 65 visit the ED due to accidents involving their walker or cane each year. Out of those seniors, about 87% experienced a mishap with their walker. A physician named George Fuller (2000) stated that “Falls are the leading cause of injury-related visits to emergency departments in the United States and the primary etiology of accidental deaths in persons over the age of 65 years.” Two wheeled walkers

Fall prevention is an important healthcare issue in the United States. Fall prevention a critical issue if one considers the ageing population in this country. Effective fall prevention strategies are established after a scientific inquiry revealed current practices and the reason why elderly are prone to fall from their beds. The proponent of this study suggested data- collecting scheme the lasted weeks. A research team was deployed to observe nurses while doing rounds. The team observed how nurses behaved and interact with their patients nursing rounds, after four weeks the proponent of this study discovered the importance of correctly implementing nursing round protocol, the use of the call light system and the need to monitor the side effects

We need to measure the incidents then only we can improve it.so we need to counted and tracked falls rates for quality improvement program. Through tracking programs we know whether the care is improving, staying the same, or it worsening. Our unit is continuously assess our fall rates and fall prevention practice. Fall and fall-related injury rates can measure how well you are following in making patients safer related to falls. Compared to previous year we improved to prevent fall related

Falls is the leading cause of injuries among older adult; however, falls should not be an inevitable result of aging. Falls affect not only on an older individual’s independence and well-being but also personal and the nation financial. It is important that older adults are aware of how to prevent themselves from falling. Health care providers play a crucial role in falls prevention. Providers should perform gait and balance screening older adults 65 years and older for falls risk at least once a years and should pay more particular attention to individuals who have history of falling. Additionally, older adults have a higher tendency of taking multiple medications, providers should review their older patients’ medication regimen periodically because some medication can increase risk for falls. Exercise is found to have a positive impact on preventing falls. Providers should encourage older patients to start exercise program to increase strength and improve body balance.

It discusses medication management noting some drugs that specifically are shown to increase fall risk. Environmental aids that help control extrinsic factors that increase fall risk. Things like removing clutter, cords, IV tubing, etc. It talks about balancing removing environmental hazards and respecting the patient’s independence. This article touches on a lot of areas to help prevent falls. In helping with my paper I especially like the discussion of fall-prevention teams. Having a successful fall prevention program requires a multidisciplinary team approach. This article helps to put a plan in place that studies the fall prevention measures a facility is using. Having a fall prevention team in place helps to examine the circumstances of the falls that do occur. By doing so, the team is able to make adjustments to the fall prevention measures. This article will useful to my paper by helping to show the importance of evidence based interventions for preventing falls and the importance of educating the health care team on using these evidence based interventions.

You share good EBP search strategy for fall prevention in geriatric populations. In our daily practice, we always applied the best of evidence, as level of our knowledge and clinical experience. According to Crist, McVay and Marocco (2016),evidence is more powerful basis for our practice. Here, you mention two generalized term as geriatric population and fall prevention that is the main reason you get numbers of articles.

Falling is inevitable at some point in life, and although most of the time falls are not serious, some can be life-threatening. Falls are a danger to both physical and psychological well-being because they may diminish a person’s ability to maintain an active and independent lifestyle.1 There are many factors that place individuals at risk for falls such as age, muscle weakness, difficulty with balance or walking, psychological diagnosis, and several medical conditions.1,2 Approximately one-third of people over the age of 65 fall at least once a year.3 Individuals that are status post stroke are at an increased risk of falls, making falls assessment and prevention a common priority for clinicians treating this population.1,2 Therefore, to direct the experimental methods and build on a basis of previous literature on this topic, the search began using OneSearch, CINAHL, PubMed, and

As currently he works in skilled nursing facilities, he provides consultation to his geriatric patients and their family. Mr. Yagnesh provide reference of Scott (2007) and explain that the geriatric patients are more prone to the fall risk and as a therapist the consultation for the fall risk management is the most safety tool. There are many validated assessment tools have been developed to determine fall risks for elderly people as per reference he mention earlier. He mentions that during his carrier, he found that half of the frail elderly could not complete physical performance tests such as the functional reach test or tandem walk test. So He mostly looking for appropriate screening tools for individuals are needed. In some of the cases,