Fall Prevention in Acute Health Care Settings

The topic of fall prevention has been very personal to me as a nurse. As we all know that people go to the hospital to get help but at times they fell and get injured and suffer the consequences even die from the complications. I decided to discuss and share how falls can be prevented in acute settings like hospitals and rehabilitation facilities. Many falls happen when people are sick and admitted in hospitals due to change of environments, side effects to medication and other physiological stress that cause confusion. The falls that are reported from the hospitals are one of the leading cause of premature death for people older than 65 years old. It may sounds simple when we talk about fall prevention, but preventing these falls is a challenge for nursing staff. Many strategies has been implemented in different hospitals but everyday more than one to two patients happen to be a victims of falls. Guiding and educating all health care professionals and nursing students in fall prevention programs is the best defeat to prevent and reduce falls in acute health care settings. Rush, Williams, Patton, Chamberlin, Bendyk & Sparks (2009) reported that research has shown that nurse and other health care professionals lack the awareness of fall rates, significant risk factors and fall reduction interventions. If fall preventions saves lives, what should nurse educators implement in the their teaching curriculum about fall prevention? Is it important to teach this topic in nursing schools?

Reference:
Rush, K.L., Robey-Williams, C., Patton, L.M., Chamberlain, D., Bendyk, H., & Sparks, T. (2009). Patients falls: acute care nurses' experiences. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 18(3), 357-365.