Nursing Home Fall Prevention Case Study

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Risk assessment is the fundamental step of risk management program, which identifies, estimates and analyzes the extent of risks to the patients, healthcare workers, and the organizations. It is the step of investigating what could go wrong, who is exposed to the risks and what actions are needed to minimize or prevent the risks. Risk assessment helps to design the appropriate planning to deal with hazards (National …….). In nursing home falls and healthcare associated infections such as urinary tract infections (UTIs), aspirations pneumonia, gastroenteritis and others are very common. Residents in a nursing home fall frequently, which increases the morbidity and mortality rate. According to center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 1800 …show more content…

In this step residents who are at high risk of fall will be given first priority such as residents with the previous history of falls, generalized muscle weaknesses, delirium, poor vision, use of psychoactive medicines. Most effective interventions will be implemented based on the likelihood of success, cot involvement and range of benefits. For instance, placing alarms on the bed and wheelchair, continuous monitoring of patients with delirium, application of bedside rails and health education to healthcare workers on fall prevention are crucial factors of fall prevention program because older people in the nursing home are dependent on healthcare workers. If health care workers are well trained and educated on fall prevention, they will be able to apply most effective strategies to prevent falls. Personally, I have seen many nursing assistants who ignore the fall safety alarms and forget to buckle the seat belt of the person in the wheelchair so it is most crucial to focus on the basic and most effective strategies of fall prevention program (Australian Catholic University,