Abstract

Patient falls remain a safety concern for all healthcare organizations and despite current evidence-based processes available for implementation there was a gap at the project site in adopting one. Therefore, the purpose of this quantitative quasi-experimental quality improvement project was to determine if the implementation of the Studer Group's Hourly Rounding tools would impact patient fall rates among adult patients in an urban medical-surgical unit in Florida over thirty-days. Orlando's deliberate nursing process theory was utilized as a theoretical framework for this project. A total of 304 patients were included in the project with the pre-intervention group of n=140 patients and the post intervention group of n=164. A between-group comparison of fall rates before (6) and after (3) implementing the intervention was performed using an independent t-test. There was no statistically significant difference between the pre-intervention (M = 104, SD = .203) and post- intervention groups (M = 1.01, SD = .134), t-test t(232.5) = 1.22, p= .223). However, there was a clinically significant reduction in falls by 50% between the pre- and post-intervention groups. The results suggest that continuation of the Studer Group's Hourly Rounding may improve fall rates and potentially prevent them over time. Recommendations include examination of the root cause of the falls at this site using different methods, sustaining the rounding over a longer timeframe, and using additional measures to achieve zero falls.

Description

This dissertation has also been disseminated through the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. Dissertation/thesis number: 28547247; ProQuest document ID: 2555331082. The author still retains copyright.

Author Details

David W. Smith, DNP, RN, EMT-P

Sigma Membership

Gamma Psi at-Large

Type

Dissertation

Format Type

Text-based Document

Study Design/Type

Quasi-Experimental Study, Other

Research Approach

Quantitative Research

Keywords:

Patient Safety, Patient Rounding, Fall Reduction

Advisor

Suzette Scheuermann

Second Advisor

Lori Wichman

Degree

DNP

Degree Grantor

Grand Canyon University

Degree Year

2020

Rights Holder

All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.

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.

Review Type

None: Degree-based Submission

Acquisition

Proxy-submission

Date of Issue

2024-08-19

Full Text of Presentation

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