Abstract

Poster presented on: Monday, November 18, 2013, Tuesday, November 19, 2013:

Problem: Falls are a key patient safety measure and can lead to increased injury, length of stay, and cost. Increasing patient and staff awareness is one way to reduce incidence of falls. Purpose: The purpose is to implement and evaluate a fall pilot program on a medical-surgical unit.

Methods: The fall intervention selected for the pilot is a 'Call don't fall' sign that will be placed in the patients' room and bathroom with the rationale of increasing patient and staff awareness via implementation of a visual reminder. The sign includes a picture and is written in both English and Spanish. Evaluation data is examination of fall rates pre- and post-implementation. Patient and staff surveys were designed to evaluate the fall intervention. The survey will be scored using a 4 point Likert scale (1=strongly disagree, 4=strongly agree, higher scores equaling a more positive response). Patient survey items include: noticing the sign in room/bathroom; ease of understanding; reminded/encouraged to ask for assistance; perception if received verbal instruction; reinforced what caregiver taught; satisfaction, and perception of effectiveness. Staff survey items include: noticing the sign in room/bathroom; perception of patients noticing and understanding the sign; perception if the sign helped remind/encourage patients to ask for assistance; use of the sign for patient education; satisfaction; perception of effectiveness; and primary shift worked. This pilot will be rolled out in one month. Staff nurse fall champions have been developed to assist with roll out, education, and survey data collection. Staff nurses have been educated on proper data collection procedure. Stakeholders have been contacted for feedback prior to implementation.

Future evaluation: Fall rates and survey responses will be evaluated monthly after pilot is initiated to evaluate effectiveness of the 'Call don't fall' sign. Changes will be made to pilot if indicated based on evaluation data.

Description

42nd Biennial Convention 2013 Theme: Give Back to Move Forward. Held at the JW Marriott

Author Details

Jennifer Kitchens, MSN,RN, ACNS-BC, CVRN

Sigma Membership

Alpha

Lead Author Affiliation

Eskenazi Health, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

Type

Poster

Format Type

Text-based Document

Study Design/Type

N/A

Research Approach

N/A

Keywords:

Falls, Medical Surgical, Evidence Based Practice

Conference Name

42nd Biennial Convention

Conference Host

Sigma Theta Tau International

Conference Location

Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

Conference Year

2013

Rights Holder

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All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.

All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.

Acquisition

Proxy-submission

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Implementation and evaluation of a falls reduction pilot

Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

Poster presented on: Monday, November 18, 2013, Tuesday, November 19, 2013:

Problem: Falls are a key patient safety measure and can lead to increased injury, length of stay, and cost. Increasing patient and staff awareness is one way to reduce incidence of falls. Purpose: The purpose is to implement and evaluate a fall pilot program on a medical-surgical unit.

Methods: The fall intervention selected for the pilot is a 'Call don't fall' sign that will be placed in the patients' room and bathroom with the rationale of increasing patient and staff awareness via implementation of a visual reminder. The sign includes a picture and is written in both English and Spanish. Evaluation data is examination of fall rates pre- and post-implementation. Patient and staff surveys were designed to evaluate the fall intervention. The survey will be scored using a 4 point Likert scale (1=strongly disagree, 4=strongly agree, higher scores equaling a more positive response). Patient survey items include: noticing the sign in room/bathroom; ease of understanding; reminded/encouraged to ask for assistance; perception if received verbal instruction; reinforced what caregiver taught; satisfaction, and perception of effectiveness. Staff survey items include: noticing the sign in room/bathroom; perception of patients noticing and understanding the sign; perception if the sign helped remind/encourage patients to ask for assistance; use of the sign for patient education; satisfaction; perception of effectiveness; and primary shift worked. This pilot will be rolled out in one month. Staff nurse fall champions have been developed to assist with roll out, education, and survey data collection. Staff nurses have been educated on proper data collection procedure. Stakeholders have been contacted for feedback prior to implementation.

Future evaluation: Fall rates and survey responses will be evaluated monthly after pilot is initiated to evaluate effectiveness of the 'Call don't fall' sign. Changes will be made to pilot if indicated based on evaluation data.