N4325 Nursing Research

USA Patient Falls Safety Issue

Falls have been one of the largest contributors to cases of hospital injuries in the country and the largest cause of deaths from injuries. The latest report on patient falls in the country indicate that 119,246 cases of falls were recorded in the country (Turner et al., 2020). The report also reveals that more than 25,807 were hospitalized injuries (Turner et al., 2020). Several falls result in injury in the country and have led to high admissions to the hospital.

After holding a collaborative interview with the Nursing Director in the health facility I work in, he revealed that the facility had experienced several challenges in mitigating the problem of patient falls. He indicated that the problem arises due to a break in communication between the nursing staff and other professional health workers since information about some identified high-risk fallers is not reported. However, the health facility employs the use of fall risk assessment to determine the patients who are at high risk of experiencing falls. The director noted that in some cases, the information collected on patient falls using the fall risk assessment does not reach the nursing practitioners who make the largest frontline workers in the health facility.

From the collaborative interview, I realized that patient falls in the facility are reported to the general nurse director, and the report is recorded in the electronic health register. However, the significant gap realized in the facility is that the general nursing manager does not share the patient fall outcomes from the meeting with the entire nursing workforce, which could help in reducing the number of future patient’s falls in the facility.  

To affirm the evidence and relevance of the problem of patient fall in the facility, I held a collaborative interview with approximately twelve nurses attending night shifts. The questions I asked majored on the steps they always pursue to prevent patient falls. The results of the study yielded different results. A good number of the nursing workforce had no information about serious cases of patient falls in the facility for the previous two months (February and March 2021). Only a few of the nurses identified having realized one to two minor cases of falls that were not at high risk of injuries. Most of them pointed that for the past two months, they have had high workloads making them not take frequent hourly rounds as recommended in practice. Therefore, they relied on data provided by colleagues in the day shifts, most of whom had no information on the latest patient fall scores in the facility. Therefore patient fall information is relevant and significant for the nurses to prevent patient falls.

The evidence from practice indicates hourly patient rounds and comprehensive communication between nurses and interdisciplinary health professionals can help reduce patient falls. The evidence and data available reveal that patient falls takes a good amount of financial expenditure on those affected by the issue. Research indicates that approximately $50 billion is spent on fatal and nonfatal patient falls in the country (Florence et al., 2018). Studies also indicate that 80% of falls are not witnessed by nursing staff (Djordjevic Nikola, 2021).

References

Djordjevic Nikola (March 25, 2021). 36 Eye-Opening Falls in the Elderly Statistics & Facts for 2021. https://medalerthelp.org/blog/falls-in-the-elderly-statistics/

Florence, C. S., Bergen, G., Atherly, A., Burns, E., Stevens, J., & Drake, C. (2018). Medical costs of fatal and nonfatal falls in older adults. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 66(4), 693-698.

Turner, K., Bjarnadottir, R., Jo, A., Repique, R. J. R., Thomas, J., Green, J. F., & Staggs, V. S. (2020). Patient falls and injuries in US psychiatric care: incidence and trends. Psychiatric services, 71(9), 899-905.

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