Geriatric Nursing Commons^™

Implementation Of Purposeful Hourly Rounding To Decrease Fall Rates, Dannette Kizy

Student Scholarly Projects

Practice Problem: Patient falls can lead to an increased length of stay and potentially reduce the quality of life. In addition to serious injury, the patient and the hospital have a significant financial burden. PICOT: On a medical-surgical unit, does incorporating purposeful hourly rounding in the patient care routine compared to no purposeful rounding decrease patient fall rates over eight weeks?

Evidence: Of the 35 articles related to fall prevention and PHR, a final selection of eight articles met the criteria and were of high quality and evidence levels.

Intervention: PHR was implemented to decrease falls over …

Evidence-Based Selection Of A Fall Risk Assessment Tool: A Program Evaluation Review, Lindsey Adams

Student Scholarly Projects

Fall prevention strategies are a consistent topic of discussion for healthcare regarding patient safety, as patient falls are costly to the patient and the organization. This project uses the CDC Framework for Program Evaluation to assess the fall prevention policy of a local hospital system, with particular emphasis on the fall risk assessment tool, Hester Davis. This project also explores the risks and benefits of adopting an alternative fall risk assessment tool, predictive analytics. Predictive analytics uses electronic health record (EHR) data analysis to provide a highly individualized patient fall risk score based on a large variety of patient and …

Community-Dwelling Older Adult Fall Prevention Improvement Project, Evan Edminster Bsn, Rn, Cfrn, Tcrn, Cen, Nhdp-Bc

Master's Projects and Capstones

Abstract

Problem: Ground-level falls among community-dwelling adults 60 years and older are significant and contribute to adverse health outcomes such as fractures, functional decline, disability, and death. Additionally, falls among community-dwelling older adults are the number one mechanism of injury seen at a Northern California Level II trauma center. Falls often lead to post-fall fear, activity restriction, and physical deconditioning, further compounding fall risk.

Context: When trauma centers provide targeted outreach and screening for unmanaged health risks such as falls, they reduce unnecessary disability and premature death in the local population. Reducing total fall victim numbers and fall recidivism also …

Reduction Of Inpatient Fall Rate In An Adult Acute Care Setting, Manjusha Maprel

Student Scholarly Projects

Practice Problem: Falls are among the most reported hospital-acquired conditions and can lead to severe injuries, increased length of hospital stays, pain, distress, and emotional trauma in the elderly. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) identifies falls as preventable and no longer authorizes reimbursement to healthcare systems for treating inpatient fall-related injuries.

PICOT: The PICOT question that guided this project was: In adult, acute care patients admitted to the telemetry unit (P), how does implementing evidence-based multimodal fall prevention strategies (I) compared to routine fall prevention strategies (C) affect inpatient fall rate (O) over a period of 6-8 …

A Quality Improvement Initiative To Decrease Fall Risk In Community Dwelling Elderly, Michele Shearer

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Manuscripts

Falls are a health concern for the elderly and are the leading cause of fatal and non-fatal fall injuries in this population (Burns & Lee, 2016). Meijers, et al. (2012) found that one in three community dwelling elderly will experience at least one fall per year with an even higher rate in adults greater than 80 years old. Numbers of falls are expected to increase as this population ages. This increase in falls and their consequences will produce an enormous economic burden on the United States health care system (Burns & Lee, 2016). The purpose of this program was to …

Compliance In Fall Prevention In Dementia Vs Non-Dementia Nursing Home Units, Garima Shrestha

Merge

The student nurse researcher performed a research study to determine if there was a difference in the compliance of fall prevention interventions between dementia and non-dementia nursing home units. The student nurse researcher hypothesized the dementia nursing home units would be more compliant with fall prevention interventions than the non-dementia nursing home units. In contrast, the null hypothesis stated there would be no statistically significant difference in the compliance of fall prevention interventions between the dementia and the non-dementia nursing home units. The Fall Prevention Intervention Checklist was used to assess environmental fall hazards in occupied resident rooms. Of the …

The Use Of Tailored Interventions To Prevent Falls: A Quality Improvement Project In The Telemetry Unit, Roda Galang

Student Scholarly Projects

Background: Every year in the United States, hundreds of thousands of patients fall in hospitals with 30 to 50 percent resulting in injury. In Texas, the fall rate in adult patients is 33.9 percent, and in one teaching hospital in South Texas, patient fall rates have been above the national benchmark for two years (2017-2019), despite increased use of sitters for patient safety and multiple fall prevention strategies. The annual direct care cost of all fall events in the United States for individuals more than 65 years old is about $34 billion.

Practice problem: The objectives of the fall initiative …

Hospital To Home: Fall Prevention Interventions For The Discharging Patient, Joy Bridewell

Nursing Masters Papers

Falls is a major public health problem globally, with an estimated 646,000 fatal falls per year. This makes falls the second leading cause of unintentional injury death. Falls are very costly with non-fatal fall injuries costing about $50 billion per year and fatal falls with an estimated $754 million. Many risk factors contribute to a person’s risk of falling. Risk factors include age, gender, muscle strength, underlying medical or disabling conditions, and unsafe environments. Patients who have been hospitalized are also among those at risk. Most hospitalized patients are assessed frequently to determine their risk of falling so that care …

Utilization Of Patient Toolkit And Discharge Algorithm For Providers To Reduce Readmission Due To Repeat Ground Level Fall, Sara Karl

Doctoral Projects

Introduction. Falls are the leading cause of injury and injury death in adults over the age of 65. A retrospective examination at Level 1 trauma center in the Midwest found that 19.4% (118/605) of older adults admitted with a ground level fall were readmitted with a subsequent fall and injury. The aim of this quality improvement initiative is to determine if the implementation of an evidenced based patient toolkit and a discharge algorithm for providers will reduce outpatient falls. The objective was to reduce hospital readmission due to repeat fall.

Methods: The design of this project was mixed methods, observational, …

A Retrospective Chart Review Pilot Study Of Fall Prevention Through A New And Innovative Care Model, Lydia Smith

Doctoral Projects

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), falls are the leading cause of injury-related mortality in the geriatric population, and they are the most common cause of brain injury and hip fracture. The prevalence for falls is 30% in patients over 65 in the United States who experience a fall annually, and the prevalence in dementia patients can be up to 80% annually; the consequences of falls can include injury, reduction in mobility, depression and decreased socialization with peers (CDC, 2015). The purpose of this retrospective chart review pilot study is to examine the number of falls …

Implementation Of Safe Patient Toileting To Decrease Patient Falls On Medical-Surgical Unit, Kimberly A. Goldsborough

DNP Scholarly Projects

BACKGROUND: Patient falls are a serious safety concern in the hospital setting throughout the country. Falls are one of the most challenging patient safety events to prevent, as there are many contributing factors with toileting activities producing the highest incidence. Fall prevention bundles are used to minimize and reduce these such events although multifaceted. The project was conducted with an academic medical center on an acute inpatient medical-surgical unit primarily housing burn wound patients. Nursing leaders and front-line nursing staff participated.

METHODS: Literature review to determine the gap in knowledge of interventions to prevent acute inpatient falls was completed. Concepts …

The Relationship Between Fall Rates And Fall Risk Inducing Drugs In Older Adult Patients In The Hospital Setting, Kristen Eldridge, Susan Kane Patton

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing Undergraduate Honors Theses

The aim of this study was to analyze the risk of falls relative to the use of fall risk inducing drugs (FRIDs) among older adult patients admitted to the hospital setting. Quality improvement of nursing fall risk assessment was of special interest. To analyze this a retroactive review of fall incident reports was conducted in collaboration with the study hospital’s risk manager. Medications were correlated with injuries sustained to identify high risk FRIDs. The selected study population consisted of 166 patients over the age of 65 who fell on the acute care campus of a hospital in the mid-south region …

Introduction Of Communication Strategies To Decrease Patient Falls In An Acute Rehabilitation Setting, Alicia Joachim

Master's Projects and Capstones

Background: Due to the lack of appropriate fall prevention measures in an acute rehabilitation unit, there has been a notable increase of patient fall occurrences within a 6 month period. The purpose of this practice improvement project was to reduce patient falls within a 36-bed unit, using visual aids and effective communication among nursing staff. The multi-disciplinary members involved licensed nurses, nursing assistants, nursing supervisors, director of nursing, and executive administrator. Methods: The method used to implement this project included a literature search, informational interviews and staff surveys, and prioritization of interventions by the team. Project implementation was guided by …

Fall Prevention In The Inpatient Setting, Verna Bautista

Master's Projects and Capstones

Fall Prevention in the Inpatient Setting Abstract

This project focuses on patient and family fall prevention education through an educational brochure. 4South is a mixed medical/surgical and medical/surgical-telemetry unit, specializing in dialysis and stroke patients. Since January 2017, there has been eight falls on the unit. The project’s objective is to decrease the number of falls in 4South by 50% by the end of the 4^th quarter 2017.

An identified weakness was inconsistent patient and family education. The CNL roles of data analyst and clinician were utilized. With the feedback from the Fall Task Force committee, an educational brochure …

An Evaluation Of Fall Prevention Interventions Among Older Adults In A Long Term Care Facility, Courtney Anita Bennett

Doctoral Projects

Falls are serious unwanted events that are a common occurrence among older adults in long term care facilities (LTC). Fall prevention in LTC facilities requires the efforts of an interprofessional team that promotes safety within an organization. The purpose of this capstone project is to implement and evaluate evidence-based fall prevention interventions at a LTC facility. Specific objectives of the project include: (a) providing education to healthcare professionals on evidence-based practices to recognize, assess, and prevent falls among older adults in a long term care facility and (b) replacing the existing fall prevention policy and program with a falls and …

Reducing Inpatient Falls And Fall Related Injuries In Acute Care Settings, Channing Williams, Nikita Lewis, Victoria Thomas

McCabe Thesis Collection

Falls are a continually rising issue in today's healthcare. In acute care settings, patient falls make up 38% of all adverse events in which include physical injury, undesirable emotional and financial outcomes for the client (Angn, Mordiffi, Wong, Devi, & Evans, 2007). Falls in the hospitals lead to fear, pain, decreased healing, longer in-patient stays, further health-related complications. Falls may also cause patient discomfort and affect quality of life. Prevention of falls is an important goal of hospitals world-wide. Research has been conducted to determine the clinical effectiveness and implementation of a fall prevention. Although falls in hospitals cannot always …