Lack of Fall Prevention Education in Nurses

Falls are considered serious healthcare issues that most facilities face globally. Hospitalized patients have become concerned since falls increase the length of stay, reduce the life quality, and sometimes become costly to patients and hospitals at large (Alert, 2018). Therefore, creating a safe environment for the patient requires a multidisciplinary approach that allows the prevention of falls. Nurses play a significant role in preventing falls through prevention programs and education (Chu, 2017). However, many nurses lack the required professional education to help them handle falls to limit these cases. This paper contains a PICOT question formulated based on the capstone project change proposal, which relates to the lack of fall prevention education in nurses.

PICOT Question

Does the provision of education to nurses on preventing falls in healthcare facilities help reduce the instances of falls among patients in Community Regional Medical Center (CRMC) Fresno?

Nursing Intervention

In the healthcare facility, interventions to prevent falls form significant clinical practice updates that many healthcare providers continue to undertake. The major focus of these interventions has turned on enhancing education among nurses on the standards of operations that limit falls. The following strategies will be used in implementing the change proposal project towards facilitating the education of nurses:

  • Conducting educational sessions with the aim of promoting and supporting the adoption of recommendations provided for in the guidelines of fall prevention. The workshops will be as interactive as possible, including a discussion of how important fall prevention is in facilities (Montejano-Lozoya et al., 2020). The education will also compose of identification and assessment of fall risk factors, the required skills for fall risk assessment, and ways of preventing falls.
  • It is not only enough to provide nurses with knowledge through education; the change proposal project will conduct an assessment post the learning sessions to establish whether nurses are able to apply what has been learned.
  • Creation of awareness among the nurses on the dangers of fall-related risk factors in weekly events conducted through poster presentations, hospital newsletters, lectures, and internal TV channels in the rooms of patients.
  • Provision of advanced training programs with evidence-based practices, including the training in specific risk assessment

Patient Care Outcome

Nurses work in critical areas handling patients with varying health challenges with limited knowledge on handling falls issues. This makes it possible that many patients they handle may experience falls even without the notice of nurses or nurses making limited efforts to prevent such. Patient care practices, which include posting a fall risk alert sign at the patient’s door, using bed alarms, and keeping the bed in a low position, may be effective (Park et al., 2019). Patient care, in this case, may include staying bedside of the patients throughout and around hourly. These care practices help reduce falls among patients and improve patient care outcomes.

Problem

In any healthcare setting, the prevention of falls among the patients is a multidisciplinary approach that nurses need to be part of it. However, the people in charge must have the required skills and knowledge to practice standardized care. The major problem has been a lack of education among nurses on how to identify risk factors and work toward preventing any falls from occurring (Shaw et al., 2020). As a result, the survey conducted showed a significantly unique trend was observed where the number of falls among clients visiting the hospital was skyrocketing. A review of the research by Heng et al. (2020) indicated that falls often occur when healthcare professionals are not keen on helping guide clients. Therefore, nurses need continuous education to facilitate them to help patients reduce the risk of falling.

References

Alert, S. E. (2018). Preventing falls and fall-related injuries in health care facilities. The Joint Commission, 55, 1-55. Web.

Chu, R. Z. (2017). Preventing in-patient falls: The nurse’s pivotal role. Nursing2020, 47(3), 24-30. Web.

Heng, H., Jazayeri, D., Shaw, L., Kiegaldie, D., Hill, A. M., & Morris, M. E. (2020). Hospital falls prevention with patient education: A scoping review. BMC Geriatrics, 20, 1-12. Web.

Montejano-Lozoya, R., Miguel-Montoya, I., Gea-Caballero, V., Mármol-López, M. I., Ruíz-Hontangas, A., & Ortí-Lucas, R. (2020). Impact of nurses’ intervention in the prevention of falls in hospitalized patients. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(17), 6048. Web.

Park, B. M., Ryu, H. S., Kwon, K. E., & Lee, C. Y. (2019). Development and effect of a fall prevention program based on the King’s Goal Attainment Theory for fall high-risk elderly patients in long-term care hospital. Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing, 49(2), 203-214. Web.

Shaw, L., Kiegaldie, D., & Farlie, M. K. (2020). Education interventions for health professionals on fall prevention in health care settings: A 10-year scoping review. BMC Geriatrics, 20(1), 1-13. Web.

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