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Prevention of falls in elderly essay
Prevention of falls in elderly essay
Essay of falls in elder adults
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“Fall may be defined as an unexpected event in which the person comes to rest on the ground, floor, or lower level” (Struksness, Lindström, Lord, Slaasletten, Johansson, et al., 2011). In older populations, falls are quite common, but with a mental illness such as dementia, the problem is worsened. This cross-sectional study showed that the most common causes of falls reported by nursing staff were individual factors like physical impairment and mental impairment. Background: Falls are a common cause of death for people over the age of 65. Following accidents, fall related mortality rate has relatively stayed constant over the last four decades. The dementia disorder continues to add an increase in fall-risk. Despite their knowledge about these conditions, nursing staffs have been unsuccessful mostly in their attempts to prevent falls among impaired cognition patients. The objective of this study was to get a thorough understanding of the nursing staff’s thoughts and opinions of falls in older patients who suffer from dementia. Causes of the falls, fall-preventing interventions, routines of documentation and reporting and the nurses experience from when the fall took place were also collected and used in this study (Struksness et al., 2011). Caring for older people with dementia is a complex process and it needs careful assessments by qualified nursing staff. Different group of nurses were included in this study such as registered nurses (RNs) enrolled nurses (ENs), and few unskilled nurses aids. This study is significant to nursing, because it shows that ongoing comprehensive systematic assessment, documentation, and continuing education can prevent falls in older people with dementia (Struksness et al., 2011). Method... ... middle of paper ... ...th dementia is complex and it needs careful assessments of risk for falls by qualified nursing staff. Ongoing comprehensive assessment, documentation and reporting can prevent fall in older people with dementia. The study shows that the people with dementia are at higher risk for fall and the challenges are increased for the nursing staffs that care for them. Nurses need to assess and understand the patient’s physical needs and provide the appropriate care by helping them with their ADL’s (Struksness et al., 2011). Works Cited Struksnes, Solveig, Margareta Bachrach Lindström, Marie Louise Hall Lord, Randi Slaasletten, and Inger Johansson. "The Nursing Staff’s Opinion of Falls among Older Persons with Dementia. a Cross-sectional Study." BMC Nursing 10.13 (2011): 1-9. BioMed Central. Web. .
Due to an ageing population , The Francis Report recommends the introduction of a new status of nurse, the “registered older persons nurse”. One of the illnesses linked in with this is dementia, and multiple factors relating to dementia are having an impact on how nurses are trained and their deliverance of services. In 2013, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) began a new development program to transform dementia care for hospitals. There aim is to develop skills and knowledge related to dementia, the roles of all those who are involved, understanding the development of action plans that identify key changes.
I worked with Dementia and Alzheimer patients as a Certified Nursing Assistant for almost three years. Working with the elderly has been one of my greatest achievements. I assisted my residents with bathing, grooming and making them feel comfortable. I was able to create a favorable environment for my residents while working with them. I had the opportunity to see patients go from early stage to their last stage of dementia. This gave me an opportunity to want to do more for people who are in need of my care. From my experience, I learnt that nursing is not just a job; it’s a responsibility and a calling, and it requires that you derive joy in what you are doing even in the toughest moment of caring for your
...tion with the outside world and loss of their life style. Communities need to be educated on dementia so that as to include and create activities they can join in. The residential homes decision makers need to monitor the cares’ behaviour as they and address issues within their working environment to improve and keep everything up to standard. The government need to implement and review their policies to make ensure quality care in residential homes. According to United Kingdom Health and Social Care (UKHCA), (2012) and The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), have been working on introducing new guidance which will help dementia patient to get more funding to live in their own homes and avoid living in residential home which is a positive move as people will still enjoy the comfort of their homes and receive excellent care.
The National Patient Safety Goal (NPSG) for falls in long term care facilities is to identify which patients are at risk for falling and to take action to prevent falls for these residents. (NPSG.09.02.01). There are five elements of performance for NPSG: 1. Assess the risk for falls, 2. Implement interventions to reduce falls based on the resident’s assessed risk, 3. Educate staff on the fall reduction program in time frames determined by the organization, 4. Educate the resident and, as needed, the family on any individualized fall reduction strategies, and 5. Evaluate the effectiveness of all fall reduction activities, including assessment,
The nurse would firstly identify if Mrs Jones is at risk of falls by conducting a falls risk assessment using an evaluation tool such as the Peninsula Health Falls Risk Assessment Tool (FRAT) (ACSQHC, 2009). The falls risk assessment enables the nurse to identify any factors that may increase the risk of falls (ACSQHC, 2009). The falls risk assessment tool focuses on areas such as recent falls and past history of falls; psychological status for example, depression and anxiety; cognitive status; medications including diuretics, anti-hypertensives, anti-depressants, sedatives, anti-Parkinson’s and hypnotics; as well as taking into account any problems in relation to vision, mobility, behaviours, environment, nutrition, continence and activities
Taking this into consideration the nurse began to carry out a risk assessment and care plan to address the issues recognised. According to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) (2015) health and social care staff should identify the specific needs of people with dementia and their carers arising from ill health, physical disability, sensory impairment, communication difficulties, problems with nutrition, poor oral health and learning disabilities. Care plans should record and address these
Preventing fall in the nursing facilites Introduction/ Background Fall is one of the major issues in nursing facilities. Of the 1.6 million residents in U.S. nursing facilities, approximately half fall annually (AHRQ, 2012). Those who fall will have the tendency to fall again. Falls in older patients can change their quality of life. Because people who fall are terrified of falling again that can affect their daily activities.
Dementia is common among a large population of elderly people. The disease affects not only the individual diagnosed, but also the caregivers that work towards making their life comfortable in the end. Understanding and learning about the disease is crucial in helping those that experience or live with someone who has dementia. The services and support that are currently in affect for elderly people with dementia and the caregivers is poor, and ineffective because of the lack of research and information on the topic.
A fall is a lethal event that results from an amalgamation of both intrinsic and extrinsic factors which predispose an elderly person to the incident (Naqvi et al 2009). The frequency of hospital admission due to falls for older people in Australia, Canada, UK and Northern Ireland range from 1.6 to 3.0 per 10 000 population (WHO 2012). The prevalence of senior citizen’s falls in acute care settings varies widely and the danger of falling rises with escalating age or frailty. Falls of hospitalized older adults are one of the major patient safety issues in terms of morbidity, mortality, and decreased socialization (Swartzell et al. 2013). Because the multi-etiological factors contribute to the incidence and severity of falls in older society, each cause should be addressed or alleviated to prevent patient’s injuries during their hospital stay (Titler et al. 2011). Therefore, nursing interventions play a pivotal role in preventing patient injury related to hospital falls (Johnson et al. 2011). Unfortunately, the danger of falling rises with age and enormously affect one third of older people with ravages varying from minimal injury to incapacities, which may lead to premature death (Johnson et al. 2011). In addition, to the detrimental impacts on patient falls consequently affect the patient’s family members, care providers, and the health organization emotionally as well as financially (Ang et al. 2011). Even though falls in hospital affect young as well as older patients, the aged groups are more likely to get injured than the youth (Boltz et al. 2013). Devastating problems, which resulted from the falls, can c...
Fall prevention is one of the biggest safety concerns regarding geriatric and pediatric patients in a health care setting. Falls occur almost every day in hospitals and nursing home settings because of a variety of reasons, from weak bones and throw rugs to toys lying in the floor. Tumbles can have grave effects on a child because they tend to play and not pay attention to their surroundings which causes them to take a spill. The consequences can be even worse for an older adult that suffers a fall giving their age and health concerns, this gives the elderly a disadvantage when falls transpire. Most people can help prevent falls from occurring but OTs (Occupational Therapist) are an elite group of people with knowledge and skills that train,
Patient falls is one of the commonest events within the healthcare facilities that affect the safety of the patients. Preventing falls among patients requires various methods. Recognition, evaluation, and preventing of patient falls are great challenges for healthcare workers in providing a safe environment in any healthcare setting. Hospitals have come together to understand the contributing factors of falls, and to decrease their occurrence and resulting injuries or death. Risk of falls among patients is considered as a safety indicator in healthcare institutions due to this. Falls and related injuries have consistently been associated with the quality of nursing care and are included as a nursing-quality indicator monitored by the American Nurses Association, National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators and by the National Quality Forum. (NCBI)
Currently in the whole United States of America, there has been a noted rise in the prevalence of falls among adult hospitalized patients. It has been revealed by studies that elderly adults of 65 years or greater fall annually and about 1/3 of these patients die every twenty minutes as a result of complications from falls. Studies have shown that approximately 67.7 billion dollars will be spent as a result of fall related injuries by the year 2020. Fall related injuries contributes to a rise in expenditure, as well as complications to the affected individuals. As a result of this, health care sector is now faced with the challenges of providing an effective/efficient strategy for the reduction of the prevalence of falls. Some studies have
Traditionally, the medical model dominated research on dementia, and studies on the lived experiences of people with dement...
One of the major risks that are associated with health as a person grows older is how much the likely to fall. This may not be a disease, yet it could lead to serious injuries. As a person grows older, he/she becomes physically weak to an extent that they are overburdened under their own weight. In these circumstances, these old aged people have developed the likeliness of falling. It is high time that these risks are prevented from happening. (Balzer, 2012). The main causes include balance disorders, faintness, vertigo, environmental risks, misperception, visual loss, and hypotension and Parkinson disease.
Even to since the time of President Bush till now we have made so much progress with hydrogen fuel cell technologies we still have a long way to go to make hydrogen the ultimate fuel. Clearly car makers have made a great deal of improvements to fuel cell technology and have dealt with the main problems with hydrogen. Even though I couldn’t find anything on how they are planning to ship hydrogen from where they “make” hydrogen to the actual fuel stations. Most likely they are going to have a delivery system much like they have for gasoline which is on the roads and freeways. I personally would chose hydrogen over gasoline any day but I am very poor and I can’t afford a car of such technological achievement.