Patient Fall With Injuries

1705 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Impact of fall prevention on patient outcomes

Patient Fall With Injuries
Working in a nursing home, as a nurse having to witness countless of falls occur more often than not is not a pretty sight. The majority of the falls that do occur lead to injuries, whether it is fracture to the face, head, limbs, or bruises to the part of the body to where the injury transpired and skin tears and cuts. The majority of the residents who do fall are either, restless, curious, attempting to grab something that is out of reach, or trying to self-transfer because they do not have the patience to wait for help. Falls can also occur with a person with dementia or some underlying infection that may cause confusion. Some residents are just plain stubborn because they feel like they are independent and invincible and nothing can stop them from getting to where they need to be. The purpose of this paper is to explain why do injury occur when patient falls? Why is this problem is a concern on many nursing units? What are the advantages and disadvantages in proposing nursing practice changes, an how to implement a recommended change to nursing practice
Pertaining to older adults age 65 years or older, why do injury occur when residents falls? The research that was gathered in relations to why injuries occur when patient falls states many causes to why this might happen. Naturally, the as the human body ages the bones in the human body start to loose bone mass, calcium and minerals. The fluid that keeps the joints moving may decrease which leads to the joints becoming stiffer and less flexible. Knee and hip joints may start to go through a deteriorating phase. When all of these effects start to take place, the bones become more brittle and may break easily just from a single fall. Move...

... middle of paper ...

...M., Parkkari, J., Sievanen, H., & Kannus, P. (2011). Declining age-adjusted incidence of fall-induced injuries among elder finns. Age and Aging, 41, 75-79. http://dx.doi.org/10.109/ageing/afr137
Nachreiner, N. M., Findorff, M. J., Wyman, J. F., & McCarthy, T. C. (2007). Circumstances and consequences of falls in community-dwelling older women. Journal of Women's Health, 16(10),1437-1446. http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/jwh.2006.0245
Peel, N. M., Kassulke, D. J., & McClure, R. J. (2002). Population based study of hospitalized fall related injuries in older people. Injury Prevention, 8, 280-283.
Periera, C. L.N., Baptista, F., & Infante, P. (2014). Role of physical activity in the occurrence of falls and fall-related injuries in community-dwelling adults over 50 years old. Disability and Rehabilitation, 36(2), 117-124. http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/09638288.2013.782355

Show More
Related

  • Evidence-Based Practice Proposal: Edmonson Fall Risk Assessment Tool

    899 Words  | 2 Pages

    The key objective of the project is to produce a report on fall among the geriatric population, which will help to improve an awareness and knowledge of the importance of lessens falls in elderly and encourage action to lower falls and related

    Read More

  • The Joint Commission: National Patient Safety Goals for Medicare Based Long Term Care

    1595 Words  | 4 Pages

    Jones, D., & Whitaker, T. (2011). Preventing falls in older people: assessment and interventions. Nursing Standard, 25(52), 50-55.

    Read More

  • Fall Prevention in Long Term Care Facilities

    1825 Words  | 4 Pages

    Risk factors for falls in older people in nursing homes and hospitals. A systematic review and meta-analysis. Archives of gerontology & geriatrics, 56(3), 407-415. doi:10.1016/j.archger.2012.12.006

    Read More

  • Falls Risk Assessment Case Study

    1214 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Falls Risk

    1387 Words  | 3 Pages

    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,

    Read More

  • Prevention of Falls and Fall Injuries in the Older Adult

    1440 Words  | 3 Pages

    Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO). (2005). Prevention of falls and fall injuries in the older adult. Retrieved from http://rnao.ca/sites/rnao-ca/files/Prevention_of_Falls_and_Fall_Injuries_in_the_Older_Adult.pdf

    Read More

  • The Benefits of T'ai Chi

    3696 Words  | 8 Pages

    Wolf, S. L., Barnhart, H. X., Kutner, N. G., McNeely, E., Cooler, C., Xu, T. (1996). Reducing fraility and falls in older persons: an investigation of Tai Chi and computerized balance training. Journal of American Geriatrics Society, 44, 489-497.

    Read More

  • Epidemiology, Assessment, and Presentation of an Elderly Patient Suffering from a Traumatic Injury

    1988 Words  | 4 Pages

    Elderly patients require far more resources medically than younger patients with the same mechanism of injury (Dinh, Roncal, Byrne, & Petchell, 2013), and it is likely due to the deterioration of the body’s systems that come with age. As seen in Fig. 1, the two major causes of death for both sexes from age 65 – 84 are road traffic collisions (RTC) or falls. Figure 1 - The. Major causes of death due to unintentional injury between 2000-2002 (Retrieved from http://www.moh.govt.nz/moh.nsf/pagesmh/5795/$File/older-peoples-health-chart-book-2006-new.pdf).

    Read More

  • Patient Fall Prevention

    2176 Words  | 5 Pages

    A fall is an “untoward event which results in the patient coming to rest unintentionally on the ground” (Morris & Isaacs, 1980). When it comes to patient safety in health care, there isn’t any subject that takes precedence. Patient falls are a major cause for concern in the health industry, particularly in an acute-care setting such as a hospital where a patient’s mental and physical well being may already be compromised. Not only do patient falls increase the length of hospital stays, but it has a major impact on the economics of health care with adjusted medical costs related to falls averaging in the range of 30 billion dollars per year (Center for Disease Control [CDC], 2013). Patient falls are a common phenomenon seen most often in the elderly population. One out of three adults, aged 65 or older, fall each year (CDC, 2013). Complications of falls are quite critical in nature and are the leading cause of both fatal and nonfatal injuries including traumatic brain injuries and fractures. A huge solution to this problem focuses on prevention and education to those at risk. ...

    Read More

  • Nursing Career: Three Most Common Assessment Tools

    1502 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...chronic illnesses which makes people more at risk for falling. Unfortunately falls are very common in the elderly which makes the fall risk tool very important. Last but not least the depression scale is used a lot in the elderly because depression is a very common diagnosis. Elderly lose their loved ones, they have decreased social interactions, etc. By using these assessment tools they will make a person a better, accurate nurse.

    Read More

  • Prevention of Falls in Hospitalized Older Adults

    2941 Words  | 6 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • Fall Prevention In Nursing Essay

    898 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Patient Falls Case Study

    1329 Words  | 3 Pages

    Patient falls in the hospital is a serious issue and challenging problem that could lead to prolonged hospital stay, longer recovery time for patients, increased costs for hospitals, and a source of distress and anxiety for patients, nurses, and families. Patient falls can cause minor or major serious physical injury depending on the situation and the age of the client. In addition to the physical harms, patients can suffer from psychological injuries which make them lose their independence and confidence on themselves and build a lot of anger, distress and fears of falling.

    Read More

  • Steps At A Strategic Action Plan

    1526 Words  | 4 Pages

    It is the hope and the goal of many hospital staff to help to decrease the number of falls in the hospital setting. The hope is to establish a plan that will assist nursing staff to decrease the number of falls. Falls can be extremely harmful to the elderly. Preventing falls is a much need goal that will bring better outcomes for the patient and the hospital. Evaluation of the action plan will also be planned for so that revisions can be made as needed to decrease the amount of patient falls.

    Read More

  • Prevention of Patient Falls

    1134 Words  | 3 Pages

    When taking steps to analyze and apply intervention strategies for falls, we must examine the factors that cause these occurrences. There are numerous reasons that falls occur, such as intrinsic and or extrinsic risk factors. Intrinsic risk factors for falls may be due to changes that are part of the normal aging process and acute or chronic conditions. According to Zheng, Pan and Hua et al. (2013), about 35-45 percent of individuals who are usually older than 65 years and other 50 percent of the elderly individuals report cases of fall every year. Extrinsic factors are those related to physical environment such as lack of grab bars, poor condition of floor surfaces, inadequate or improper use of assistive devices (Currie). Patient falls is not an easy thing to eliminate. With many clinical challenges, there’s no easy answer to the challenges posed by patient falls; howe...

    Read More

More about Patient Fall With Injuries

Open Document