Capstone Project: Falls Prevention and Risk Assessment of the Elderly Population while in Long Term Care facility Evidence Based Practice – NUR 4775L Dr. Susan Poole, DNP, CNE November 22, 2015 Capstone Part I: Falls Prevention and Risk Assessment of the Elderly Population while in Long Term Care facility Introduction to Problem According to Centre for disease Control (CDC) more than 1.4 million people 65 and older live in nursing homes. If current rates continue, by 2030 this number will rise to about 3 million (CDC, 2014). Nursing home residents are at an increases risk for falls depending on the acuity of their illness and their mental state.
In this chapter, Finny yet again falls but instead from a tree, down the stairs. Gene and Finny are brought to the Assembly Room by Brinker, where he holds an investigation about Finny’s fall from the tree. Brinker wants to get the specific facts about the incident and tell Finny that Gene made him fall from the tree. Currently, Finny denies that Gene jounced the limb, even after Gene tried to tell him the he did it purposely. During the inquiry, Gene and Finny are almost fabricating a story about what happened that day.
The Way We Fall by Megan Crewe, Response Journal #4, pp. 160-309 Question: What emotions did the book invoke: tears, smiles, anger? Share and discuss these. When reading The Way We Fall, I felt a range of emotions.
The conclusion of the article was that hourly rounding that has leadership involvement and staff that buy into the program is an effective fall prevention program. This conclusion was based off the results from the study. This review was of good quality. Hourly rounding and patient falls was a study that was conducted to see if hourly rounding was an effective fall prevention strategy. The study involved 2 units.
Falls of critically ill patients admitted to the ICU routine should be avoided developing certain strategies used outside this area, such as prevention of displacement, promote stability, elimination of sliding hazards routinely ensure that the patient is oriented to the environment and the bell is at the fingertips, keeping the beds in the lowest position and braking, providing adequate lighting, and provide anti-slip footwear and technical assistance in lifting patients bed. The response time of the call prolonged ringing patient or family is just one of the potential causes of falls, firstly because if the response time is greater serve their needs later, and partly because no response to the patient may start feeling agitated. Shift schedules nurses can be particularly effective in preventing falls, as they allow the staff to anticipate and address the needs of each patient. The tubing, drains and cables must be securely to prevent tripping when lifting or embody patients. Although falls can happen without warning, subsequent falls can be avoided if the etiology of them is
Change is inevitable not only in the hospital setting but also in all other organizations that put the safety of stakeholders at hand. It is, however, sometimes challenging to have all stakeholders adopting a proposed change since some individuals would rather stick to the old ways of doing things as opposed to trying out new interventions (Guse, Peterson, Christiansen, Mahoney, Laud, & Layde,, 2015). Nevertheless, positive change is essential, especially when such a change is expected to positively impact on the safety of patients (Johnson, Veneziano, Green, Howarth, Malast, Mastro, Moran, Mulligan, & Smith, 2011). The purpose of this paper is to critique the adoption of hourly rounding as a nursing intervention for preventing falls.
On top of the marketing campaign, Bacardi also formed a joint advertising campaign with Pan Am airlines, using the slogans “Leave the Dry Lands Behind” and “Fly to Cuba and Bathe in Bacardi rum” to help encourage Americans to keep coming to Cuba for Bacardi rum (32). Americans enthusiastically responded to the invitation to escape to Cuba and tourism doubled in the span of 10 years, from 45,000 in 1916 to 90,000 in 1926. Cuba became a tropical retreat where guests were greeted with complimentary cocktails and were introduced to the popular drink, the original daiquiri (32). Due to the increase in demand, Emilio also built and opened a new distillery in Santiago de Cuba in order to produce more rum (11).
This act created a major revision of standards of care for nursing homes. This legislation also changed the expectations and the quality of care that patients should receive in long term care facilities. This Nursing Home Reform Act passed by congress specifically stated “that each residents have the right to be free from any physical or chemical restraints imposed for purposes of discipline or convenience and not required to treat the resident’s medical symptoms”. While there may be some benefits to using restraints in nursing homes, however, studies have shown that using restraints in nursing homes negatively impacts patients and for the most part does not prevent them from falling or from other incidents that may occur. There are very high levels of risks associated with the use of restraints (Lapane,150).
(Joint Commissions, 2014).It is important for nurses to explain how to use the call light to the elderly patients, and also to ask for help before getting out of bed. Vulnerable patients should be placed close to the nursing station for close monitoring. It is very important to educate health care workers on the approaches used to prevent falls. The measures used to prevent falls in the elderly could include; carrying out a risk assessment during admission, placing colorful stickers outside their doors, stopping the use of psychotropic medications, teaching them the best way to use their assistive device, placing their call light and belonging within their reach, placing their beds in the lowest position with brakes /wheels locked at all times, removing throw rugs from their surroundings, making sure that they are wearing non-skid shoes/socks before ambulating and also giving them their prescribed Vitamin D supplement as well as encouraging them on the use of their corrective glasses or hearing aids. It is very important to educate health care workers on the approaches used to prevent
According to Fisher and Friesema (2013), occupational therapists have the opportunity to lead in things such as fall prevention; however, if other professions “position themselves as the most qualified to address these key domains, occupational therapy practitioners will be left out.” Again, that is why practitioners must stay on top of evidence based research and continue advocating for occupational
It also provided the use of critical thinking and clinical judgment on how to prevent falls, support, and be accountable for a client professionally. The practical knowledge I have learned helped me become aware of assessing and assisting a client. As a nurse, our job is to provide “safe, compassionate, competent and ethical care” (p.8) and collaborate as an interprofessional team to deliver safe care and prevent risks from happening while offering quality nursing care (CNA, 2017). I will always provide the professional care under the code of ethics to promote health and wellness for an older adult and prevent risks from happening. As well as following the plan of care, use communication strategies, be aware, acknowledge, and accommodate individuals with different diseases such as with dementia, to promote fall prevention strategies (RNAO, 2017).
Additional prevention can be created by instituting stabilization work into station physical fitness. “A balance training program will significantly reduce the risk of ankle sprains. ”(McGuine,
This helps your balance and agility, and can help prevent falls at older
Informative:Fall Many people in the Fall tend to lose weight or gain weight some more than they wanted to, so they start thinking of ways they can lose all that weight they have gained, but you can also gain weight by doing different this. Exercising will help you gain and lose weight, just depends on what you do, for example say you are loving how the weather is outside so you decide to go for a jog that is a type of exercise. Another way is weightlifting, that can help you gain weight because you are gaining muscle also, so my job is to help us find some different ways to stay healthy this Fall. One way to start is taking advantage of the weather.
This program, called the Nijmegen Falls Prevention Program, included one hundred thirteen elderly clients with a history of falls. Exercise sessions were held twice a week for five weeks with fall monitoring done before and after the experiment. Control assessments were also done continuously thru the study to determine client changes in standing balance, balance confidence, and obstacle avoidance skills. The results of the Nijmegen Falls Prevention Program showed that the number of falls within the exercise group dropped by a significant forty six percent! Not only less falls, but obstacle avoidance skills dramatically improved as did balance
