The Effects Of Fall In Older Adults

Most hospitalized patients of 65 years and above have been established to be more vulnerable to falling within their homes or in a facility. These falls have been attributed to various causative agents that need to be assessed and managed in an attempt to completely avert falls (Wilbert, 2010). Prevention of falls should be mandatory since they cause more danger to patients, including breakage of the main bones and even death. As a result, the patient may develop a more serious condition such as decrease functional immobility in addition to that which caused hospitalization. Most of these falls have been found to be caused by therapeutic impacts and ignored diagnostic information (Naqvi, Lee & Fields, 2009). For instance, a great number of elderly people who are hospitalized are diagnosed with dementia at the time of admission; hence, such information needs to be taken into consideration during the care of such a patient. Dementia is likely to cause disorientation and confusion which may result in recurrent falls. Therefore, falls may be described as the abrupt and unintended loss of uprightness that leads to body displacement towards the ground falls (Wilbert, 2010). The purpose of this paper is to develop a falls prevention, management program that will reduce the number of falls occurring within an organization.

The widespread falls among the geriatric population reduce their quality of life and take away their functional independence. Lee et al (2013) state that falls leads to the rise in mortality rates and morbidity complications such as fractures and disabilities,1 out of 3 elderly persons in a community setting falls in a year. About 87% of all fractures in the elderly are due to falls. Several of the risk factors that are associated with falls are visual impairments, cognitive impairments, and health-related problems: arthritis, orthostatic, back pains, lack of balance-weakening muscles, previous falls, polypharmacy or psychoactive drugs (Lee et al, 2013).

Anyone is at risk for a fall, however, falls are especially concerning in the older adult population.

In DC, community based fall prevention programs have been rising to address falls but fall related incident, injuries and the cost has continuously been rising among elderly people (Costello & Edelstein, 2008). In the study conducted by Berland et al. (2012), showed that in home health, not viewing patient safety as primary prevention, lack of investigation causing fall and frailty of elderly adult have been some factors contributing to falls in home health. Falls negatively impacts an individual living in their home by causing them physical, emotional problem, giving rise to additional cost by losing workdays and income.

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

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.

Falls in the elderly is a significant health problem, which can lead to severe issues such as morbidity and mortality. The topic of falls within the elderly was chosen so that the many interventions, risks, and awareness strategies can be further explored within this paper. Throughout clinical practice I was intrigued by the number of patients that have fallen and the strategies that health care organizations take to prevent falls. However, I was concerned by the lack of awareness in the community related to falls in the elderly. The topic of falls in the elderly is multifactor in the sense that there are many intersectional factors that can result in falls. The significant impact of falls in the elderly and the consequences that falls have

(2015) findings, if community of practice as a fall prevention intervention become successful, it has that ability to improve the resident quality of life and independence. It can also provide improved policy and practice that can empower organisation staff. Sakamoto et al. (2012) have highlighted positive findings on daily use of olfactory stimulation with lavender odor in order to prevent falls. But, study was conducted in nursing home residents that could not be generalised in community-dwelling elderly people. Event though the study aim by Bunn et al. (2014) was to evaluate effectiveness of fall prevention intervention in mental health resident from all setting (hospital, nursing home and community), they could not find enough report to support their aims. Also, the lack of robust evidence did not provide specific guidance to the practicener in mental health settings. Vlaeyen et al. (p. 220) has found the multifactorial fall prevention program can decrease fall and fallers if the surveillance is provided 24 hour in residential care facilities. However, in the same study single interventions was failed to show benefit on fall prevention. As consequences, further research is recommended. Among all five articles, the findings by Rimland et al. (2016, p. 18) give strong support for effectiveness of non-pharmacological intervention for fall prevention in three different settings. The study has also used robust procedure for review identification, quality assessment and data extraction, which make it rigorous than other studies (Rimland et al. 2016, p.

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

The paper will discuss falls prevention in the older adult over the age of 55 and new and alternative interventions for fall prevention compared to current practice. The desired outcome of the paper is to provide information for fall prevention and, therefore, decrease the occurrence of falls. First, in order to understand the importance falls have within the clinical setting, statistics showing the mortality, morbidity and financial impact should be understood. The occurrence of falls within the acute care setting is a growing problem among the elderly. The evidence shows that one in three people aged 65 or older will sustain a fall and that only half will report the fall to a caregiver (CDC, 2014). The number increases to one in two when the patient reaches the age of 80. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) defines a fall when a person unintentionally comes to rest on the ground or another lower level. Falls are not an inevitable part of aging, however, aging does influence such things as reduced mobility, comorbidities, and cognitive impairment which contribute to fall risk. Falls are one of the leading causes of injuries in the acute care setting. The injuries sustained from falls leads to increased hospital stay time and a chance for further injuries which may harm the patient (CDC, 2014). According to the CDC in 2013, 2.5 million people suffered a fall, of these falls 734,000 were hospitalized. The falls also resulted in 22,900 people dying from fall

Falling risks are increased in seniors with dementia, musculoskeletal disorders, neurologic conditions, vision and hearing loss, and those on multiple medications. Given this list, is it any wonder that more than 50

Falls are a serious problem on a national and global level, but falls do not have to be a fact of life in the aging process. Falls are almost entirely preventable. The topic of falls prevention was chosen as my research question for study due to several reasons. The first is that falls represent a serious problem for the aging community. Secondly, falls are preventable. Something can be done to reduce the number of falls experienced by elderly persons.

In the absence of evidence to support a population-based approach to prevention and the imperative to deliver cost-effective and efficient services, health care providers need risk assessment tools that reliably identify at-risk populations and guide intervention by highlighting remediable risk factors for falls and fall-related injuries. Such tools typically consist of a rating or scoring system designed to reflect the cumulative effect of known risk factors for the purpose of identifying those at greatest risk for sustaining a fall or fall-related injury [*]. Historically, fall risk tools have focused on institutional settings with little attention to tools tested in community settings. Of the reviews that do include community dwelling seniors, tools are typically limited to the assessment of balance with little consideration of other risk factors [*].

Falls remains one of the most concern regarding patient safety problems for older adults in the hospital setting. While patient falls is frequently occurring in hospitals, they often cause serious injuries, death, and additional cost. Nobody can prevent all patients falls, but hospitals can significantly reduce the ones they can when implementing a fall prevention program. The purpose of this study is to reduce the incidence of older adults falls at hospitals and evaluate the factors that contribute to the risk of falling. The study will use a retrospective experimental comparison design of two groups in the hospital setting. The patients at the medical unit will receive the risk falls assessment for six-month while patients at the surgical

This article identifies that falls in the elderly patients is common on patients admitted to nursing homes and hospitals. They provided data explaining the severity of the problem. The authors the explained the risk factors that contribute to patents falls while receiving treatment. They concluded that the major risk factors for falls include previous fall history (3.06), use of assistive devices (2.08), and moderate disability (1.00). They also identified other factors that either reduces or contributes to falls. Other factors identified includes; balance and muscle weakness. The proposal from this article is that patients who are qualified for the three major risk factors should be closely monitored while admitted in the hospital or care